PathToHoliness

Last week Cindy and I attended Mass at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Urbana, IL. We got to see a college friend who has just started work in the area. It was great to re-connect after about 31 years! It was also nice to travel together again for work and have the time to weekday Mass.

Have you ever tried going to a weekday Mass? On a regular basis? Think it’s not possible? I thought so until I started doing it. Made it a priority and now if I can’t go I feel like my day is missing something. Something important. Which it surely is. One of the things I found is that I’m more productive in a day when I make it to Mass. Seems counter intuitive but that’s just the way God works.

Cindy and I got to work together last week in Louisville, KY at the National Farm Machinery Show. It’s a huge indoor farm show at the Kentucky Expo Center.

We attended weekday Mass at St. Agnes Catholic Church. This is a beautiful church that we’ve both been to before when we’ve been in town for the show. This was the first time we got to go together.

We get to work together again this week at the National Ethanol Conference in Orlando, FL too.

Happy St. Valentine’s Day. I was able to attend Mass today at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, IL. My wife, Cindy, and I are traveling once again for work. She’s attending a client event today, then we head to Louisville, KY for the National Farm Machinery Show. We’ll probably get to have a romantic dinner in the St. Louis airport this afternoon. Doesn’t that sound exciting? But we don’t mind because it’s being with each other that’s important. It’s our 36th St. Valentine’s Day together too.

I love the stories about St. Valentine and the origins of this day. My favorite is one that our Pastor told during Mass yesterday morning back home. Here it is from the History Channel website:

The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Last week I attended Mass at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Orlando. I got in just in time for the noon Mass in spanish. It was standing room only. This picture is before it really got crowded. By the time Mass started there were people standing outside who couldn’t get it! It’s not a small church either.

I assume this is a healthy sign. There was a lot more hand clapping, laughing, hand waving and hugging than I care for but I guess that’s the cultural difference between these folks and what I grew up with. The Mass is still the Mass and Jesus is there just the same. I never became fluent in Spanish but that doesn’t mean I didn’t understand what was going on as it relates to the different parts of the Mass and the prayers that were being said.

Hello from Perdido Key, FL. Our family came down to a beach condo late in December and enjoyed Christmas and New Year’s here. After two of our daughters went back to Missouri, Cindy, daughter Chelsea and I stayed here. We’re going back at the end of the month. Now before you think we’re just laying on the beach, we have a good reason. We’ve been house hunting as we hope to relocate to Florida. In fact, we’ve got an offer in on a house right now and are saying our prayers it will be accepted.

While down here we’ve attended Mass at several churches. Yesterday morning we attended Mass at St. Mary’s, pictured here. It’s the only church near us that has a Saturday morning Mass. It’s also one of two churches near where we hope to live.

Florida is my home state and where Cindy grew up. We’ve wanted to make this move for years but waited until our daughters were finished with college. Actually, our middle daughter still has a couple years of grad school in St. Louis to get her doctorate in Physical Therapy. So, our path to holiness may be taking us to Florida soon. I’m thinking positively anyway.

This past weekend I got to go on an annual pheasant hunt in central South Dakota.

On the way a couple of us stopped for the night in Sioux City, IA. That gave me a chance to attend a weekday Mass at Sacred Heart Church.

After Mass they had Exposition. It is always nice to spend a little extra time in prayer with our Lord this way!

From there we proceeded to a farm near Highmore, SD.

Here’s a picture of our group after a lot of walking to find pheasants. We all got our limits and it was a great time for fellowship and fun.

On Sunday morning I took five of us to Mass at St. John’s in Harrold, SD. It’s a nice little country church. They had a 9am Mass which allowed us to get started on a day of walking the fields just shortly after starting time. I hope to get to do it again.

You can find photos from our hunt here.

My wife Cindy and I have been attending Mass this week at St. Dennis church in Madison, WI. I wish I could tell you what the sculpture in the picture is but you pass it on the way into the church. The trees are in full fall color so it was a pretty setting.

We’re attending the World Dairy Expo which is the largest dairy show in the United States. It’s an annual event and you can find our stories and photos on our dairy news website, World Dairy Diary.

I’ve been meaning to post this photo for a while. When I was in Guelph, Ontario I visited the Church of Our Lady Immaculate. This church sits high on a hill and it’s my understanding that no other building in town is allowed to be built higher.

The Church of Our Lady Immaculate has been a place of worship and reflection for over 120 years. The church is constructed of local limestone in the Gothic Revival style. It towers over the Guelph community as a constant reminder of God’s love and a community’s resilience. Designated a National Historic Site, it is the most visited tourist destination in the city of Guelph.

I did not get to attend Mass but stopped in for a visit while out on a walk one afternoon.

Hello from Canada. I’m participating in an agricultural communicators conference this week. We’re starting out in Guelph, Ontario and will be touring later in the week and winding up in Niagra Falls before heading home.

I was very blessed to attend Mass this weekend at St. John the Baptist Church in Guelph. Here’s a photo prior to Mass. We heard from a Comboni Missionaries priest. Very fascinating work that he’s involved in with people in Africa.

This is a picture inside the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville, TN. It is one of the places I was last week. This summer has been one of the busiest in terms of travel that I can remember.

This week Cindy and I will be on the road together at the annual Farm Progress Show. It’s going to mean long days out at the show since you have to get in before the crowd and the lines start.

This week you get a picture of a church I did not attend. Instead, this is St. Therese Church, Wrightsville Beach, NC, where my wife Cindy went to Mass. She sent me the photo.

I was in Sturgis, SD, staying in an RV at the Buffalo Chip Campground for a couple days work at the annual motorcycle rally. It really is not a pleasant place to be in a lot of ways. But if you’re a motorcycle fan then you’ll never see more of them all at once in a small area.

Summer travel for work has been at a hot pace lately and so has the weather. One of the places I’ve been to in the last couple weeks was New Orleans. This is the Cathedral-Basilica St. Louis King of France New Orleans. That’s a long name!

Few cities in the world are so identified by a building as is New Orleans. The city is instantly recognized by our cathedral and its position overlooking Jackson Square. The Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis King of France is the oldest Catholic cathedral in continual use in the United States. As the caretakers of the Historic place of worship, we constantly battle the elements and the aging of the Cathedral with ongoing conservation and restoration.

The church sits right on the edge of the famous french quarter where there is a lot of partying. For those of us who have to visit for work it offers a kind of retreat from the activity that’s going on at a frantic pace every day and night.

I’m doing a lot of summer highway miles. Last week that included staying in Pontiac, IL for a couple nights for a farm tour I was working on. We visited farms that are taking part in a project to manage nutrients on their crops in order to make sure they are doing all they can to take care of the environment.

While I was in Pontiac I got to attend weekday Mass at St. Mary’s. The church is downtown and easy to find and had early morning Mass on Thursday and Friday which was perfect for my schedule. I’ll be in Nebraska and back to Illinois this week. It’s always an adventure to see where my faith takes me!

Happy Memorial Day Holiday. Many churches have a holiday Mass schedule. Hopefully you checked yours. This morning I attended an early Mass at Immaculate Conception in Jefferson City, MO. Normally I would go to the Cathedral but the Mass there isn’t until 9am this morning.

Today we honor, remember and pray for the souls of our deceased men and women who have died in service to our country. At 3pm today you may want to take a moment to say a prayer and remember these heroes.

To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans “To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to ‘Taps.”

Last week my wife and I visited Pensacola, FL and Perdido Key in particular. Why? Because we love the area. We took some time to get to know the area and attended weekday Mass at different churches. I particularly liked this church, St. Anne’s.

The church has a Swiss design and is actually not as old as it first looked. It has a really nice outside Way of the Cross and lots of other property that includes a pecan grove that has provided financial support to the parish. We also attended Mass at Little Flower and Holy Spirit.

So here’s one nice part of traveling. You sure get to see a variety in Catholic churches!