PathToHoliness

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.

I was asked once to desccribe how I envisioned Heaven. I never answered because, quite frankly my mind draws a complete blank at the thought. However, in Spe Salvi Pope Benedict gives an excellent reflection on eternal life (paragraphs 10-12). Here’s a piece:

To imagine ourselves outside the temporality that imprisons us and in some way to sense that eternity is not an unending succession of days in the calendar, but something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality—this we can only attempt. It would be like plunging into the ocean of infinite love, a moment in which time—the before and after—no longer exists. We can only attempt to grasp the idea that such a moment is life in the full sense, a plunging ever anew into the vastness of being, in which we are simply overwhelmed with joy. This is how Jesus expresses it in Saint John’s Gospel: “I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (16:22).

Suck on that for a while.

The Pope says that this is how we must think if we are to truly understand the object of Christian hope and what our faith leads us to expect.

See the Catechism of the Catholic Church on Heaven.

This kind of goes with yesterday’s post on the importance of voting pro-life because abortion is, above all, a human rights issue.
In a speech addressed to the members of the Democratic International of the Centre and the Christian Democrats Pope Benedict said (my emphasis added):

Today was Pope Benedict XVI’s 80th Birthday. Gifts for our German Shepherd included 80 bottles of Bavarian beer from the Archdiocese of Munich, a cake from some seminarians and a giant teddy bear. Let’s pray for our Pope’s continued health. His first trip to the Americas will be May 9-14 when he visits Brazil.

Check out his latest exhortation, Sacramentum Caritas, the sacrament of charity, on the Eucharist as the source and summit of the Church’s life and mission.

It has been an incredibly busy time in my work requiring an immense amount of travel. I’m behind on posting again. However, with Lent just having gotten underway I’m trying to take some time for personal reflection and to slow down a little bit.

If you’re interested in what Pope Benedict has to say about Lent you can find his message posted here.

Excerpt:

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

“They shall look on Him whom they have pierced” (Jn 19:37). This is the biblical theme that this year guides our Lenten reflection. Lent is a favourable time to learn to stay with Mary and John, the beloved disciple, close to Him who on the Cross, consummated for all mankind the sacrifice of His life (cf. Jn 19:25). With a more fervent participation let us direct our gaze, therefore, in this time of penance and prayer, at Christ crucified who, dying on Calvary, revealed fully for us the love of God.

I subscribe to a blog on advertising called Adjab. It’s all about new advertising that they find interesting. A recent post was titled, “The Pope as ad man.” Chris, the writer, has an interesting take on how important it is to companies to have the Pope wear, use or exhibit their product. It’s called product placement in the advertising world.

The post includes a link to a Wall Street Journal article on the subject. Chris also points to a story about Polish television banning erotic and violent advertising when he visits. Too bad the Pope can’t be everywhere at once, eh?

The Pope had a wonderful message of peace for Easter. Here’s an excerpt from his Urbi et Orbi:

May the Risen Lord grant that the strength of his life, peace and freedom be experienced everywhere. Today the words with which the Angel reassured the frightened hearts of the women on Easter morning are addressed to all: “Do not be afraid! … He is not here; he is risen (Mt 28:5-6)”. Jesus is risen, and he gives us peace; he himself is peace.

This past week was a very busy and interesting one. I attended the Biotechnology Industry Organization convention in Chicago. It was huge and easy to see that this is a growing business area. There are so many good things that people are doing with biotechnology research. Especially in the food and agriclture arena. At the same time it’s very easy to see a negative side. For us Christians that’s most evident in the push to do embyonic stem cell research. As a reporter at the meeting my focus was agriculture but it was easy to see the messages from companies touting their stem cell initiatives as essential for human health. This is troubling. In those cases it seems like money is ruling over the science and just plain common sense.

It gave me a lot to pray about.

It’s a beautiful Palm Sunday here in mid Missouri. Holy Week has started and we’re getting close to the anniversary of the greatest event in the history of the world. That’s how the priest on my retreat describes Easter. Having the God made man, Jesus, die for our sins and then rise from the dead so that we might have eternal life has got to be the biggest event in history. No other event has such long lasting effects. Nothing is longer than eternity.

Here’s a link to the Vatican’s Holy Week 2006 web page. It says today is the 21st World Youth Day. Pope Benedict has a message for our youth.

My dear young friends!

(Full Text of Message)

I pray that you may have a very blessed Holy Week.

This has got to be the story of the week. At least for me. Pope Benedict now has an iPod Nano. He received it from Vatican Radio employees. You should read the release.

I’ve already seen the story on a number of websites like Engadget. Check that one out and read the comments.

For example. I thought an interesting one was simply, “iPope?” Another one made a comment about how Apple now has the POTUS and the Pope carrying around a Nano and getting serious free publicity. You can’t buy that kind of advertising.

Bottom line though is that iPods and other brands of digital audio players can become a useful part of your spiritual life. There’s great stuff to subscribe to like the Vatican Radio programming.

Just when I’m wondering what to post in comes inspiration. This time an email from Rob with the Apostolate for Family Consecration.

I subscribe to the Cardinal Arinze Podcast and they have a new logo. Now that is cool! A cardinal with his earphones on. I know we need peace and quiet in our daily lives but if you’ve got an iPod or other digital audio device you can subscribe to some great spiritual material. Cardinal Arinze’s podcast is one of them.

If you are having any problems subscribing or knowing how to get started just let me know.

May you have a very blessed and merry Christmas season. One of my gifts is a video iPod. Of course I’m in the blog and podcast business so it’s a business tool right?

I got to spend a little time this evening searching iTunes and the web for good Catholic podcasts. They do exist. For example, EWTN is now podcasting some of their programming. What I love about this is that you can download and then listen to the programs whenever and wherever you want. They have a nice selection of programs.

Vatican Radio is also podcasting. You can listen to their One-O-Five Live program and subscribe.

The title is a quote from Pope Benedict at his Sunday blessing. The story is in USA Today. He also “suggested that assembling the Nativity scene in the home is an effective way of teaching the faith to children.”

I really couldn’t agree more. It seems like we get all stressed out by having to purchase things for a whole list of people and in the process we forget to spend time meditating on what this season is all about. Of course we could pray as we stand in line at the store or wander through the mall but even if we wanted to it’s almost impossible with all the noise and sights that you have to contend with.

I was really appalled this afternoon while working out at the YMCA to see a tv ad for a video game called “Gun.” As I recall it posted words with flashing images like sin, lust, etc. and then said that there was nothing wrong with them. Of course it had a mature rating. As if that prevents it from being seen or played by kids. Even adults shouldn’t be messing with this stuff. And this was an ad on tv at about 3pm on a Sunday.

Yes, consumerism has polluted the true meaning of Advent and Christmas.