PathToHoliness

Today was the feast of the Ascension of our Blessed Lord Jesus into Heaven (yes, our diocese changed it from Thursday to Sunday). This wonderfully blessed event took place in order that our Lord might send us His most Holy Spirit to be our advocate before Him. We will celebrate Pentecost next Sunday, so this whole week is a great time to really meditate with Our Lady on the Glorious Mysteries, our need for the Holy Spirit and our hope for the coming of the Lord.

When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going 4 to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
~Acts 1:6-11

Also, if you’re following, today was the third day of the Holy Spirit Novena.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and enkindle them with the fire of your Divine Love, send forth your Spirit and they shall be created and Thou shall renew the face of the earth!

I know I’ve introduced you to my daughter Chelsea in the past.

She has her own blog, Reflections of a Parayltic, which I highly recommend you check out.

I’ve set her up as a contributor to Path To Holiness since she has more time to post than I do lately. I think you’ll really like her writing and style.

You won’t find a more active and committed supporter of life.

I want to wish all mothers, especially my own mother and my beautiful wife, a very happy Mother’s Day! And, of course, I can’t leave out the Mother of God and our own very Blessed Mother.

Mary, our mother, the Queen of all mothers, we love you! Pray for us!

Heavenly Father, You have been pleased to give all human beings the joy of having a mother, one who works with You to give them life and bring them to human adulthood.

Amen.

Last weekend I went with my wife and daughter to see the latest Spider-Man movie. I am a long time comic book fan so of course I loved it. But I was particularly impressed with the underlying theme of the movie. This wasn’t just an action packed superhero movie, there was a very clear message. That message was forgiveness. One scene in particular illustrated this message perfectly. Spider-Man, finally consumed by hatred and revenge, realizes the terrible effect this has on his soul and flees to a nearby Catholic church. After spending some moments alone on the steeple (in prayer?) he descends into the bell tower and, with the help of the tolling bell, rips off the black garment he had been wearing which was an outward symbol of the vengeance within. It was such a powerful image and I thought, this is the healing power of confession!

Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; Though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool (Is 1:18).

The more we sin, the further away from God we become. The sacrament of reconciliation is a sacrament of God’s love, mercy and forgiveness. He is always calling us back! Not only does it reconcile us with God, but also with our neighbor. When one offends God it consequently effects the rest of the Mystical Body of Christ, obviously in a negative way. Therefore, when we repent and offer penance for our sins we will, then, through the mercy and forgiveness of God, help others and repair the damage we have done.

Have recourse to confession; it’s not merely to pardon grave sins or venial sins or even faults. It’s also there to strengthen us, to fill the soul with grace and hasten us along, so that we might travel the road more quickly. It will also show us how to be more adept in struggling and to win, how to behave in such a way that we live virtuously and detest sin. St. Josemaria Escriva

Sources:
A Guidebook for Confession
Why We Need Confession
Frequent Confession

What are you doing to honor our Blessed Mother this month? Have you considered joining the Legion of Mary? I have been an auxiliary member for a number of years while my wife has been an active member, visiting and bringing communion to the nursing homes. This year, my oldest daughter became the president of our parish’s Praesidium. If you are not familiar with the Legion, here is a brief explanation from the official website:

The Legion of Mary was founded in Dublin, Ireland on 7 September 1921. It is a holinelay catholic organisation whose members are giving service to the Church on a voluntary basis in almost every country.
The object of the Legion of Mary is the glory of God through the holiness of its members developed by prayer and active co-operation in Mary’s and the Church’s work.
The unit of the Legion of Mary is called a praesidium, which holds a weekly meeting, where prayer is intermingled with reports and discussion. Persons who wish to join the Legion must apply for membership in a Praesidium.

The great thing about the Legion is that there are two different levels of involvement. First there are active membership. Active members carry out a weekly apostolic work in the spirit of faith and in union with Mary and attend regular weekly meetings. However, if you’re unable to undertake active duties there is an auxiliary membership. These members provide spiritual support for the Legion through the daily recitation of the Rosary and the Legion prayers.

Some of the work includes:

Instructing and preparing others to receive the Sacraments
Teaching the Catholic faith to children or adults
Assisting the pastor with conducting a census of his area
Visiting jail inmates, the hospitalized, the homebound sick or elderly, or residents of nursing homes
Distributing rosaries, medals, Catholic literature in a crowd contact area

Rooted firmly in prayer, the Legion is organised on the model of an army, a spiritual army. The commander of this army is our Blessed Mother, with whom we work to bring souls closer to her Son, Jesus.

This is a great way to honor Our Lady and to work for the salvation of souls. Why not make a membership in the her Legion your gift to your mother Mary this Mother’s Day? Visit these websites or contact your parish or diocese office for more details:

Legion of Mary Concilium
Legion of Mary

We are called to pray always, but it is nice that we have a day set aside to unite with the whole nation in prayer – especially in our increasingly secular society. Here are some of the President’s remarks today:

“It’s the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and to humbly implore his protection and favor.” It’s interesting that the first President said those words.

For two centuries, Americans have answered this call to prayer. We’re a prayerful nation. I believe that makes us a strong nation. Each day, millions of our citizens approach our Maker. We pray as congregations in churches and in synagogues, and mosques, and in temples. We welcome people of all faiths into the United States of America.

We pray as families, around the dinner table, and before we go to sleep. We pray alone in silence and solitude, withdrawing from the world to focus on the eternal, spending time in personal recollection with our Creator. ..

The greatest gift we can offer anyone is the gift of our prayers, because our prayers have power beyond our imagining. The English poet Tennyson wrote, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.” Prayer has the power to change lives and to change the course of history. So on this National Day of Prayer, let us seek the Almighty with confidence and trust, because our Eternal Father inclines his ear to the voice of his children, and answers our needs with love.

May God bless America.

Read the entire speech here.

Yesterday I posted this quote from St. Josemaria:

You should maintain throughout the day a constant conversation with Our Lord, a conversation fed even by the things that happen in your professional work. Go in spirit to the tabernacle…and offer to God the work that is in your hands.

The idea of going in spirit to the tabernacle as a way to keep holiness in your daily life reminded me of a website I found on another blog. Savior.org is an online visit to the Blessed Sacrament. The goal of Savior.org is not to replace spending time in the physical presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, but to increase “awareness and devotion to our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament. We also seek to bring the live image of His living Presence to the homebound, the workplace, and to remote areas around the world.”

I think it is a fabulous idea and a good way to keep in the presence of Our Lord throughout the day. Another way I heard about in a talk on the Eucharist is to ask your guardian angel to go and kneel in the presence of Our Lord for you and tell Him you love Him.

Today was the feast of St. Joseph the worker. St. Joseph could be considered a model for Opus Dei. He was regarded in the Bible as a good and just man and was referred to by his profession (“is this not the carpenter’s son?” Mt. 13:55). The emphasis on Joseph’s work in the Bible and throughout tradition speaks to the importance of our own work in the world.

From St. Paul’s teaching we know that we have to renew the world in the spirit of Jesus Christ, that we have to place Our Lord at the summit and at the heart of all things. Do you think you are carrying this out in your work, in your professional task?..

Professional work – and the work of a housewife is one of the greatest of professions – is a witness to the worth of the human creature. It provides a chance to develop one’s own personality; it creates a bond of union with others; it constitutes a fund of resources; it is a way of helping in the improvement of the society we live in, and of promoting the progress of the whole human race…For a Christian, these grand views become even deeper and wider. For work, which Christ took up as something both redeemed and redeeming, becomes a means, a way of holiness, a specific task which sanctifies and can be sanctified…

You should maintain throughout the day a constant conversation with Our Lord, a conversation fed even by the things that happen in your professional work. Go in spirit to the tabernacle…and offer to God the work that is in your hands.

~St. Josemaria, the Forge 678, 702 and 745

Today Mexico City legalized abortion during the first three months of pregnancy. Our Blessed Mother must surely be weeping for this city she once saved.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, we turn to you who are the protectress of unborn children and ask that you intercede for us, so that we may more firmly resolve to join you in protecting all human life. Let our prayers be united to your perpetual motherly intercession on behalf of those whose lives are threatened, be they in the womb of their mother, on the bed of infirmity, or in the latter years of their life. May our prayers also be coupled with peaceful action which witnesses to the goodness and dignity of all human life, so that our firmness of purpose may give courage to those who are fearful and bring light to those who are blinded by sin.
(from a prayer said at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on January 22, 1999)

Presidential hopeful, Senator Sam Brownback, is a rarity as far as presidential candidates are concerned. A devout Catholic, he constantly strives to sanctify his daily life. One of the ways he does this is by keeping a quote from Mother Teresa on the back door of his home about not judging people:

“So easy to judge people,” he says. “I see you coming in the hallway and my mind just automatically goes, ‘Okay, reporter, Washington Post, that’s a primarily liberal publication, be careful.’ Well, now I’ve automatically judged you. So I’ve spent my time judging you instead of thinking, ‘Oh, here’s a great person that I can interact with. I pray to love ’em.’ “

He frequently examines his soul for hate and then works to rid himself from its harmful effects. He even went so far as to apologize to Hillary Clinton for having once despised her and her husband. In the business of politics it is easy to have ill feelings for those with whom you are in disagreement, especially in a heated debate. For these situations Sen. Brownback practices prayer:

“Instead of getting angry at somebody for opposing you on something, you’re just praying for them,” he says. “You just pray blessings on them, blessings on their family.”

In addition to striving for sanctity, the Senator is committed to promoting a culture of life. Recently he was the only presidential Candidate in the Senate to vote against a bill to increase funding for embryonic stem cell research and even lead the floor debate in opposition to it. During the 2004 Republican convention he said, “We must win this culture war. I say we fight.”

So now the Kansas Senator is seeking the office of Presidency and he does so with a humble abandonment to the will of God, “If I win, I win. If I lose, I lose. It’s a great liberation”

Though not an Opus Dei cooperater himself, Sam Brownback, a lifelong Protestant, was welcomed into the Catholic Church four years ago by Fr. John McCloskey, a priest of the prelature.

Source: Faith Based Initiative from the Washington Post

Three cheers for the Supreme Court’s ruling to uphold the partial birth abortion ban. This is a barbaric procedure which destroys the dignity of human life and our children, our women, deserve better.

Daily prayer for the Supreme Court: “May the Guardian Angels of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices guide them today.”

Here is an inspiring story for us all. 76 year old engineering professor at Virginia Tech, Liviu Librescu, made the ultimate sacrifice to save his student’s lives Monday. When the gunman was charging for his classroom, Librescu barricaded the door with his body, allowing his students to escape through the windows. Soon after the last student got out the gunman was able to force his way in and shot Librescu to death.

Liviu Librescu is no stranger to tragedy. He survived the holocaust as a child and later the persecution of Romania’s communist regime. This is truly inspiring and brings home Jesus’ call to all of us to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters (Jn.15:13).

God bless this Jewish brother of ours.

Also, we would do well to pray for the soul of the young man who carried out this heinous shooting. Today one media outlet released a video he had sent them prior to the shooting and it is clear he was a very disturbed individual.

Yesterday’s shootings cause us to pause and think about the fragile gift of life.

We first pray for the victims of that horrible day, including the shooter. It’s a tragedy to see so many lives lost so suddenly. It is hard to make sense out of something so senseless, but we have faith that God is in charge and He will make all things work out for good.

Trust fully in God and have a greater desire each day never to run away from him
~St. Josemaria Escriva

We also thank God for our own lives (yes, it’s ok to do that in these situations) and the lives of our family and friends. Events such as this remind us of our own mortality and where this life is leading us.

We heard in the Gospel on Sunday, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (Jn. 20:29) Indeed, we look at the things that are not seen for those things are eternal (2 Corinth 4:18). And we have faith that the sufferings of the present time are nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed to us (Rom. 8:18).

At least once daily, cast your mind ahead to the moment of death so that you can consider the events of each day in this light. I can assure you that you will have a good experience of the peace this consideration brings.
~St. Josemaria Escriva

May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

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.

Today, on Divine Mercy Sunday, we celebrate the deep ocean of love and mercy Jesus has for all mankind from which he forgives even the most hardened sinners.

Eternal Father I offer you the body and blood, soul and divinity of your dearly beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.

For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world!