PathToHoliness

Our Lady Queen of Peace was the church I got to attend Mass at once again this year on my annual fall visit to Madison, WI for World Dairy Expo.

The church has a 6:30am Mass each week day which is perfect since I usually need to be on location at the Alliant Energy Center by 7:30am for different activities.

I’m planning on starting an online photo album of churches where I get to attend Mass soon.

Since there continues to be confusion about just what Opus Dei is, a resource you can go to to find out the facts is the Opus Dei website. They’ve got a very up to date and easy to understand section on the facts about the Prelature. Here’s an example:

Mission & Characteristics: Saint Josemaría Escrivá founded Opus Dei in 1928 to help people live by the Gospel in their daily activities and make Christ present in every endeavor. Opus Dei focuses on work and daily life as an occasion for spiritual growth and an opportunity to contribute to a better world. Opus Dei also emphasizes divine filiation, unity of life, prayer and sacrifice, charity, apostolate and fidelity to the Pope.

Activities: The chief activity of Opus Dei members is personal effort to grow in holiness, carry out apostolate and improve society. In support of these efforts, Opus Dei provides spiritual direction, prayer and study meetings, retreats, classes and workshops. These activities take place in an Opus Dei center, or in a church, office or private home. Members also sometimes join with non-members to organize educational, charitable, and cultural projects, which may include spiritual formation carried out by Opus Dei.

I hope you’re getting ready for the visit from our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI starting tomorrow. There’s been a lot of speculation about his trip which I think the video Chelsea posted helped clarify.

I see lots of news online about the trip including a story in the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram which says that President Bush will be picking the Pope up personally from the airport and escorting him back to the White House. Here’s his explanation for why he’s doing so:

“One, he speaks for millions. Two, he doesn’t come as a politician; he comes as a man of faith,” Bush told the EWTN Global Catholic Network in an interview aired Friday. He added that he wanted to honor Benedict’s conviction that “there’s right and wrong in life, that moral relativism has a danger of undermining the capacity to have more hopeful and free societies.”

One of the people I heard mentioned on my recent retreat was Mathew Kelly. So, of course I Googled for him at my first chance today. The first result I looked at is an article he wrote called Classroom of Silence. I work in a profession that’s all about noise and I do mean audio. We produce a lot of it for online agricultural communications. I attend a lot of conferences where all you do all day long is talk to people and hear lots of noise. I like my music-filled iPod but I have to take time every day to just sit in silence and this article struck a personal note with me so I thought I’d share it with you. Here’s an excerpt:

Silence presents both sides of the Christian challenge. Firstly, silence introduces us to ourselves – our faults, failings, flaws, defects, talents, abilities, and potential. And secondly, silence introduces us to God – greatness, fidelity, and perfection. It is these two discoveries together – self and God – that propose the Christian challenge. Seeing ourselves as we are, and God as He is, we are always challenged to change, to grow, and to become more like God.

Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher, scientist, mathematician, and writer of the seventeenth century wrote, “All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.”

How can we examine our conscience when there’s too much noise? Kind of difficult if you ask me. So, many people I work with might be surprised but this makes perfect sense to me and I highly recommend it. Silence that is.

I’m on the final day of my annual retreat which is put on by the Wespine Study Center in St. Louis, MO. It’s actually held at the Cedar Creek Conference Center in New Haven, MO. I like to think of it as my time to re-charge my spiritual batteries for another year. The retreat usually comes at a time when I feel like I really need it. Maybe after a number of years your soul gets into a rhythm.

We have a wonderful chapel in which the priest presents a series of meditations and where we hold daily Mass.

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.

The retreats are held during the spring at Cedar Creek Conference Center, 14 miles west of Washington, Missouri. The retreats run from 10:30 a.m. on Friday to 2:00 p.m. on Sunday.

There are also retreats held here for women that are put on by the Lindell Center, which is located in St. Louis as well.

The Knights of Columbus have created a website to help us keep up with the Pope’s trip to America next month. It’s going to be interesting to see if they do any posting onto the blog they have built into it.

They’ve also created a prayer for his trip as well.

Almighty Father, who pours forth blessings in abundance upon us, we humbly pray that you will inspire, guide and protect Pope Benedict XVI on his pastoral visit to the United States.

Lord God, bless our Holy Father who comes as a messenger of peace and charity to all people of faith and good will.

May his presence in the United States serve to build up the bonds that unite us who are each made in your image and likeness, and may his teaching and witness strengthen the faith of the People of God.

Father, we lovingly entrust Pope Benedict’s visit to the care of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of the Americas.

Through her prayers may he be preserved from all harm, and may he shine forth with the truth of the Gospel that he proclaims, and may his presence among us foster a renewal of the Church in our country.

We make this prayer through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The second part of the Easter Triduum consists of the Veneration of the Cross. My camera phone didn’t take a very good picture of this at the service we attended at St. Andrews in Holts Summit, MO last night.

I think Chelsea has written a good post on the Cross, something that so many in our society won’t even take the time to think about. We have a lot of crosses and don’t usually see them as ways to grow closer to Christ. I know I have this problem.

Venerating the Cross helped me to consider how upset I get at all the little things that go wrong instead of thanking God for the opportunity to shoulder my little tiny part.

Here it is Holy Saturday, a day that can best be described as a day of waiting with expectation. At least that’s how I’ve always felt. It’s a day for rest and contemplation, for an especially good examination of our conscience.

The Easter Triduum is one of my favorite times of the year. Yesterday at our Church, Cathedral of St. Joseph, we attended the evening Mass.

Our Bishop celebrated the Mass and afterward we had the procession with the Blessed Sacrament which was reposed for adoration until midnight in our side chapel.

We are blessed to have 24/7 Adoration here as well.

Pope Benedict XVI Saturday approved a decree recognizing the heroic virtue of Father Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus. The pope’s declaration significantly advances the priest’s process toward sainthood and gives the parish priest the distinction of “Venerable Servant of God.” If canonized, Father McGivney would be the first American born priest to be so honored.

“All of us who are members of the Knights of Columbus are profoundly grateful for this recognition of the holiness of our founder,” said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson. “The strength of the Knights of Columbus today is a testament to his timeless vision, his holiness and his ideals.”

This past week my Opus Dei Cooperator’s Circle met at my house. With all my travel I rarely get a chance to attend so I try to host at least once a year and then maybe I’ll actually make it.

The talk was on what St. Josemaria Escriva calls “Holy Intransigence.” I had to look up what the word meant even though I had an idea. He describes it this way (From The Way 397):

Be uncompromising in doctrine and conduct. But be yielding in manner. A mace of tempered steel, wrapped in a quilted covering.

Be uncompromising, but don’t be obstinate.

This is what I love about this saint. His spirituality is so simple and he puts it into simple words for us to understand and apply in our life. I think this is a great lesson to meditate on.

It’s March For Life day in Washington, DC. Judging from the looks of the people I’ve seen on EWTN which is doing live coverage, it’s pretty cold there. That doesn’t deter these people. We’ve got quite a few, including high school students, from our area there.

In case you haven’t visited it, there is a March For Life website.

I listened to some of the prolife politicians talk on a lunch break. While it’s sad that we can’t have laws in our society that protect life from conception to natural death it’s also inspiring to see how many people are willing to work so hard to try to create a culture of life here in our country. That Supreme Court decision 35 years ago is one of the worst ever made and those who have a reckless disregard for the life of others revel in it still.

I remember when I got more involved in prolife activities when I went to work for the Vitae Caring Foundation (not working there now). The founder, Carl Landwehr told me that if you think about what has happened and is happening every day you can literally go crazy. It’s hard to believe how many babies have been killed in this country. The number is staggering. I hope and pray every day that there will be an end to abortion. We need a change of hearts though. Many times I’ve said that if our hearts and our culture respected life and people didn’t have abortions, the laws would become irrelevant.

But they do need to be changed.

Opus Dei is providing short video clips of founder, St. Josemaria Escriva on its website. The latest one is about:

When St. Josemaria was a young parish priest, there was a milkman who entered his Church every morning for a few seconds. “Jesus, here is John the milkman.” To the young priest, that prayer seemed simple and beautiful.

Here’s where you can find the video.

On the occasion of the 5th anniversary of his canonization, we offer a weekly video of Saint Josemaría.

In the last years of his life, St. Josemaría held many conversations with various groups of people. During them, he would explain points of Christian doctrine and Opus Dei’s spirit. These short videos allow you to see and hear him presenting these teachings.

I hope your spanish is good.

It’s still Christmas even though it seems like most people have forgotten about it and are moving on to how to celebrate New Year’s and the Super Bowl. The definition of Christmas Season seems to vary as you’ll find in this article on Wikipedia. You can find more Catholic information at American Catholic. Better yet, here’s a great article about the Christmas season from the Opus Dei website.

I added the wise men to our front yard manger yesterday. I know it’s not Epiphany yet but at least some of my neighbors understand.

I hope everyone who visits has had a nice Christmas. Our family has even if we’re starting to become more spread out as our daughters get older and have other interests and friends since they’ve been in college.

Here’s wishing you a very safe and happy New Year.

Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI is busy this Christmas. You can find out all about it on the Vatican’s Christmas celebrations website.

They’ve already got information up from last night and will have a lot more as the day goes on including live broadcasts produced by the Vatican Television Center.

Here’s an excerpt from the midnight Mass homily:

Heaven does not belong to the geography of space, but to the geography of the heart. And the heart of God, during the Holy Night, stooped down to the stable: the humility of God is Heaven. And if we approach this humility, then we touch Heaven. Then the Earth too is made new. With the humility of the shepherds, let us set out, during this Holy Night, towards the Child in the stable! Let us touch God’s humility, God’s heart! Then his joy will touch us and will make the world more radiant. Amen.

Here it is Advent already and my travel has finally slowed down for a while. It’s a good time to do some extra personal reflection and examination of conscience.

To help you along the folks at Scepter Publishers recommend the “In Conversation With God” series. I’ve never made it through a whole year with them but they’re great. If you don’t want to start with the whole collection then you can order just the book for the Advent season.

Here’s a synopsis of the series:

Author Francis Fernandez-Carvajal makes generous use of the writings of the great saints as he brings you focused and moving meditations on themes taken from the Mass readings for that day, the liturgical season, and more. This work is rich and extensive enough to serve as your spiritual reading for a lifetime, as it helps you relate the particulars of the message of Christ to the ordinary circumstances of your day. Each volume is small enough for you to carry it to Adoration or some other suitable place for meditation. The whole set comes with a handsome slipcase that prevents wear-and-tear on the individual volumes.