PathToHoliness

Today is the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of Mary

St. Joseph, husband of the Mother of God, pray for us!

My favorite prayer to St. Joseph:

Oh, St. Joseph,
I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine Head for me and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath.
St. Joseph, Patron of departed souls – pray for me. Amen.

In case you missed them. Here’s the first Focus on the Family that aired during the Super Bowl pre-game show – very classy:

And here is the ad that aired during the first quarter of the game. LOL, think N.O.W. will start complaining that the ad promotes violence against women? Well done!:

Both ads are also available on the Focus on the Family website, which features a more in-depth interview with Tim’s parents Bob and Pam and their choice for life.

You can read my final thoughts on the “controversial” commercial over at Reflections of a Paralytic.

In his critique of Bill Maher’s 2008 unintelligent, anti-God documentary Religulous, Fr. Robert Barron beautifully describes what it really means to have faith:

Opus Dei has a new video out which features young people from various countries speaking about how they have found happiness in living their Christian faith.

Although a blizzard was forecast, it didn’t happen here and we made it to midnight Mass at the Cathedral. It was a beautiful Mass and best way to celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ that I know of.

Of course family is also a very important part of Christmas and our daughters were home to go to Mass with us. After Mass we went up in front of the tabernacle for photos.

Then it was home for unwrapping presents and a very early breakfast before taking a long nap. I’m pretty sure I’ll be taking another one today too.

We all went on a great vacation this past week to Panama City Beach and on the way back visited my brother, Mark’s family. He and his wife have a beautiful baby boy we got to see for the first time. Of course we shot video and pictures like this clip of him with Carly’s iPhone.

So, it’s a beautiful day in mid Missouri. The snow finally got here so we’ve got a white Christmas. Merry Christmas to you and your families.

This is cool. I installed it today:

The FREE CatholicTV App provides you with video of this day’s Mass, a daily Rosary from around the nation and the world, a brief reflection to bolster your Faith and news about what’s happening and coming up at Your Catholic Broadband Network.

Get the app at CarryYourFaith.com

Speaking about priests, the New York Archdiocese has a vocation campaign that features a great video which is incredibly well done and inspiring.

All of it, no exceptions:

(h/t: Happy Catholic)

“May they live the gift they have received with JOY!” (h/t Priest Year News):

A reflection for the feast of the Assumption from the Apostleship of Prayer:

See video here.

As soon as he reflected seriously and was struck by the conviction that immortality and God exist, he naturally said at once to himself: “I want to live for immortality, and I reject any halfway compromise.” In just the same way, if he had decided that immortality and God do not exist, he would immediately have joined the atheists and socialists (for socialism is not only the labor question or the question of the so-called fourth estate, but first of all the question of atheism, the question of the modern embodiment of atheism, the question of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) built precisely without God, not to go from earth to heaven but to bring heaven down to earth).

~Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Do you?

Several months ago dad listed some of the Catholic applications available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Here SQPN highlights some Catholic apps in a spoof of the iPhone tv ads (h/t American Papist):

My favorite (since inheriting dad’s iPhone after he upgraded to the 3Gs) has been iBreviary which also includes the daily Mass readings. It’s nice, when traveling, not to have to carry my big Liturgy of the Hours book. Although, I’ve noticed that the app has been having some problems loading lately 🙁

Here’s another iPhone spoof from SQPN:

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.

This is a great motivational video for all Catholics defending the sanctity of all human life, especially those heading to the March for Life this week. It’s time to follow in the footsteps of the Lord:

When you call on your congressmen to fight FOCA don’t forget to also encourage them to oppose expanding funding for embryonic stem cell research! And pray for the conversion of our pro-abortion Catholic politicians!