PathToHoliness

Here’s a back yard meditation garden at Roseaire Retreat. At least that’s what I’m calling it. There are some benches in front of it.

I’m going to try to write a series of posts from notes I took while on retreat last weekend. I’m also tweeting them.

So, to get started, the first note I wrote is, “Ask Jesus what you can do to love and serve him more. Where are you going?” This was something we were asked to do and meditate on at the start of the retreat. The answer to the question would help us form a good resolution to take away with us. So, each time I visited the Blessed Sacrament during the next couple days I asked Jesus what He wanted me to do and how could I love Him more. This doesn’t mean I expected to hear a voice give me clear direction but by the end of the retreat I made a resolution to re-dedicate myself to my daily spiritual practices and follow my plan of life. And to do so without complaining and worrying. Writing this post is an example of how I’m trying to follow up on my resolution. Here’s to hoping I will continue.

I have written before about having a plan of life and I will write some more about it soon. I’m taking a few moments to get a new update here on Path to Holiness while I’m on my annual retreat. This is part of my plan of life.

I’m attending a retreat at Roseaire Retreat which is managed by the Tekesta Study Center in Miami. This annual retreat is needed to charge the spiritual batteries so I can go forward toward the goal of Heaven. We live in a world with a lot of challenges to achieving that goal but it is possible with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ!

I’ll be sharing notes from this retreat as I have time to in coming weeks. Now I need to get back to some serious meditation and examination of my conscience.

One of our Godson’s, Luke Zimmerman, received the sacrament of Confirmation last week. He is the son of my brother who lives in Georgia. We got to go spend a few days there after making it up in time for the Mass. Bishop Zarama of the Atlanta Archdiocese was there and gave the Confirmation class a great homily. Here’s a quote that Chelsea wrote down.

The most important decision you make in life is to be yourself. That is, be the person God made you to be. –Bishop Zarama to my cousin’s Confirmation class

Happy Easter to everyone. It’s a great day to celebrate Christ’s resurrection.

This year the Men’s NCAA Basketball tournament is happening at the same time. Hopefully my Gators will win but even if they don’t it’s still a lot of fun to support them.

It’s also fun to support the Catholic Gators Alumni Association. Our mission is:

To become partners with the Catholic Student Center in forming Catholic leaders who live their faith fully and invite others into a closer relationship with Christ.

The Association is affiliated with St. Augustine church in Gainesville, FL, part of the Diocese of St. Augustine. I found this video on the parish website showing the Bishop Felipe J. Estévez making his first visit to the church. We’re hoping to be there ourselves this year to root on our Gators.

Congratulations to our daughter, Chelsea, for becoming the Editor-in-Chief of Catholic Lane.

Here’s an excerpt from her blog.

As you may recall, I have been as associate editor at Catholic Lane for the past year and a half or so, managing the Life Issues and Bioethics section. Sadly, my former editor-in-chief — and CL founding editor — Mary Kochan has been forced to step down due to increased disability in her hands and she graciously asked me to take her place. It seemed like an opportunity that I would be a fool to pass up. I pray that I am up to this challenge.

Viva il Papa! Habemus Papam. And his name is Pope Francis and he’s the 266th Pope.

He was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina. So he’s got a lot of firsts. He’s the first Pope born outside of Europe and first Pope born in the Americas. He’s also the first Pope Francis. How about that?

I can’t tell you how happy a day this is. My Confirmation saint is Saint Francis of Assisi!

Let’s look at some ways to follow legitimate news about the selection of our new Pope. I say legitimate because there is so much speculation and supposed news reporting that just shows a world out of touch with faith and especially the Catholic faith. I’m sure the Cardinals really appreciate media stars telling them what they need to consider when making this very important decision, not! We’re seeing it all from advice on how we should have a Pope who is a better business man to a Pope who needs to be more liberal. No where do you see these news stories talk about the need to pray for our Cardinals, that God does watch over His Church, that we need not be afraid and that we need to let our faith guide us during this time.

Okay, so how do we follow what is happening in Rome? How about starting with the Vatican News? They are about as close to the action as you can get. And they will have special coverage of the conclave.

Here’s a Vatican Radio report on what will happen this coming Tuesday: Vatican Radio Report

Then there’s the Pope App. Get it for your iOS or Android device. How’s this for transparency?

An app focused on the figure of the Pope. It will allow you to follow his events live and to set up alerts notifying you when papal events begin.

Additionally, the app will let you see key areas of the Vatican through webcams distributed throughout St. Peter’s Square that are always broadcasting images.

You can also follow Vatican News on Twitter @NewsVa_En, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

And there is a Vatican Radio app for your iOS or Android devices.

And of course there’s always L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO and EWTN.

There are so many ways to get better information than you’ll find in the media of today. Now you know what I’ll be following.

I never had an opportunity to meet or see Pope Benedict XVI but I have a memento to remind me of him.

A priest that said Mass at an Indy Car race I attended had just returned from Rome and had a number of rosaries with him that were blessed by Pope Benedict. He gave them to those of us who wanted one and this is it.

I prayed my rosary with it this morning!

If you’d like to offer some prayers for our outgoing Pope here are some petitions from a document titled, “LITURGICAL NOTES AND RESOURCE MATERIALS FOR USE UPON THE RESIGNATION OF THE POPE” (pdf) available from the Secretariat of Divine Worship of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

• That Pope Benedict XVI may be given the strength needed to complete faithfully and fully his remaining ministry as our Pope, we pray to the Lord.
• That Pope Benedict XVI, who has served the Church faithfully as Supreme Pontiff, may find peace and consolation as he turns to a life of prayer for the Church, we pray to the Lord.
• That the tireless efforts of Pope Benedict XVI in fostering the unity and communion of the Church may bear fruit in our hearts and among all Christians, we pray to the Lord.
• For Pope Benedict XVI, who preached that God is love and that we are saved in hope, that he may strengthened in hope and know God’s love for him now and for all eternity, we pray to the Lord.

Planning a scheduled retreat right now and looking at various options this year. For years I have attended a Wespine Study Center retreat which is currently being held at the Sojourn Center in Missouri. However, this year since I have re-located to north Pensacola, FL there are two closer Opus Dei centers offering men’s retreats.

One is Roseaire Retreat in Delray Beach, FL and the other is Featherock Conference Center in Schulenburg, TX. They are about equal distance driving for me and both look like they have scheduled retreats that are open dates on my calendar. I’m sure that I can find other retreats to go on but none offer the same type of spiritual opportunities I find on an Opus Dei led retreat. At least that I have looked at. I’m sure there are very good retreats available but I want to stay with the formative structure of Opus Dei as a cooperator in the work.

If you have not attended a retreat or perhaps have not thought about going on one this year then perhaps now is a good time to do a little research and see what would work into your schedule.

Happy St. Vincent, Deacon & Martyr, memorial day.

Sadly, today is also the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. St. Vincent, please intercede for us!

There are estimates that 55 million babies have been killed by abortion during this time. That’s an unfathomable number that I can’t wrap my mind around. Abortion takes an innocent life, a human life. It doesn’t make the news. But a few people killed in a war zone will. I weep for them too. I always wonder how we as a society can allow this to continue.

To help visualize this huge number Oregon Right to Life has posted a video on YouTube that tries to help.

Since abortion was legalized in 1973 by the Roe v. Wade decision, over 55 million developing babies have died through abortion. Fifty-five million is a big number and hard to visualize.

To commemorate the lives that were lost, one million deaths are remembered at the tolling of each bell and states begin to disappear to represent the numbers of children who have disappeared.


There is so much that has been written on this subject that I don’t know what to add. I spent two years working with the Vitae Caring Foundation which did ground breaking research into the emotional reasons why a woman would have an abortion. I spoke to groups all over the country and am glad to have had that opportunity. As the founder of Vitae once told me, “It will drive you crazy if you dwell on it.” It, being abortion in this country. So many human lives taken away from us. It is enough to drive you crazy. But we can pray harder and not be afraid to speak out in support of unborn babies. I pledge to do so.

We are in the Year of Faith as declared by Pope Benedict. To celebrate it in the Pensacola-Tallahassee Diocese our Bishop Parkes is holding a day to Celebrate Faith 2013: Encountering Christ. Everyone is invited. Find out all about it here.

Here’s a description of the logo for the Year of Faith.

The logo is composed of a square, bordered field on which a boat, symbolizing the Church, is represented as sailing on a graphically minimal representation of waves. The main mast of the boat is a cross from which sails are displayed in the form of dynamic signs which compose the trigram of Christ (IHS). The background to the sails is a sun which, associated with the trigram, refers also to the Eucharist.

If you have been watching college football bowl games you probably saw Coach Lou Holtz urging Catholics to come home. I think it’s a great ad and hope it will make all Catholics think about their faith.

They say football is like a religion for some die hard fans, that’s why Catholics Come Home® plans to air a new national television commercial during college football bowl week, and ending with the BCS National Championship (Notre Dame vs. Alabama), Jan. 7, 2013.

Catholics Come Home® Founder and President Tom Peterson says, “Faith is not a spectator’s sport; it must be lived…it’s interactive!” This is why his non-profit is trying a new play with the goal of winning loyal fans for Jesus and the Church.

Coach Holtz from Catholics Come Home on Vimeo.

Happy New Year. It’s that time to think about resolutions. Do you have any? Do you keep them? Perhaps a good resolution would be to keep your resolutions! Here’s one used in a Happy New Year from the St. Josemaria Institute.

“Form the resolution to set the world ablaze — you can —loving with a pure heart, and making all mankind happy by bringing them really closer to God.” St. Josemaria Escriva The Forge, 916

Sounds like a good resolution to me. How can we do it? How about practicing our Catholic faith “in the world,” meaning in our regular daily life. We’re not Sunday Catholics are we? We don’t practice our faith by just going to Mass once a week right? If so, then it’s time to take your faith seriously. It’s what should guide you and all your decisions.

I’ve been seeing more and more people I’m connected with socially (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) posting all kinds of “spiritual” quotes that are very nice sounding ideas about serenity, peace, happiness, etc. None of them mention God, religion or any kind of faith. I don’t see how it’s possible to ignore God and His son Jesus who came down to be born of a woman for our salvation. Most of these nice sounding quotes are from spiritual gurus of different types that don’t profess any belief in God. What they preach is all about what you do yourself, as if we can do anything by ourselves without God. Right?

Here’s a video showing St. Josemaria with some young people who brought him a figure of the Christ Child. He talks to them and blesses them with it. One of the things I’ve always loved about St. Josemaria is how he likes to put himself in the scenes from the gospels. Are we putting ourselves in the scene with the manger and the newborn child today?

From Christ is Passing By, 36:

“…a child is born in Bethlehem.”
When the fullness of time comes, no philosophical genius, no Plato or Socrates appears to fulfill the mission of redemption. Nor does a powerful conqueror, another Alexander, take over the earth.

St. Josemaria Escriva

The title of this book by Pope Benedict XVI, The Joy of Knowing Christ: Meditations on the Gospels, is a wonderful phrase to describe the the feeling that comes from a faith in which you “know Him,” the son of God. It is my first reading of our Pope’s writings and I’m finding him very easy to read and understand.

It is my new spiritual reading as suggested by my new spiritual director. I haven’t mentioned Fr. Joseph Callipare, Vicar of Deacon Formation and Permanent Deacons, Diocese of Pensacola/Tallahassee, before. With this year’s move to Florida from Missouri it has meant many changes and one of the most important ones for me is good spiritual direction. I have only been meeting with Fr. Callipare for a couple months but am very happy and blessed to have found him.

In my experience of having regular spiritual direction there is no question in my mind that it is a benefit of extreme value to living a holy life in the middle of the world. Having someone who gets to know you personally and whom you receive the sacrament of Confession from on a frequent basis really helps keep you on track, especially is they are firm with you. The help keep you focused on your faith. That’s something we need much more of in today’s society!