PathToHoliness

The new year brings an opportunity to do a little extra self examination and see how you’re doing spiritually. As important as your spiritual life is we sure don’t see or hear much about it do we? Instead we seem to see and hear all about how important our material goods are and how important our retirement plan is. One of the things that attracted me most to Opus Dei is the spiritual formation it offers. Just reading the writings of St. Josemaria Escriva is an enormous help.

One of the things I’m focusing on right now is my plan of life. The founder describes it this way, “Try to commit yourself to a plan of life and to keep to it: a few minutes of mental prayer, Holy Mass — daily, if you can manage it — and frequent Communion; regular recourse to the Holy Sacrament of Forgiveness — even though your conscience does not accuse you of mortal sin; visiting Jesus in the Tabernacle; praying and contemplating the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, and so many other marvellous devotions you know or can learn.

You should not let them become rigid rules, or water‑tight compartments. They should be flexible, to help you on your journey you who live in the middle of the world, with a life of hard professional work and social ties and obligations which you should not neglect, because in them your conversation with God still continues. Your plan of life ought to be like a rubber glove which fits the hand perfectly.” (The Way 77)

I have my own business and travel a lot. This often makes it difficult to fulfill my daily plan, especially attending daily Mass. However, with a concerted effort it can be done. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought I couldn’t make it to Mass in a town or country I’m visiting or how many times I couldn’t find the Church. Usually just when I’m ready to give up I turn a corner and there’s the Church right in front of me.

I really believe that if a day goes by without taking the time to spend in prayer and with our Lord, it’s a lost opportunity. So, that’s part of my new year’s resolution – to re-commit myself to my plan of life.

I didn’t realize how many pictures and video clips there are on the Opus Dei website now. When the Prelate, Bishop Javier Echevarría, recently visited the United States a lot of pictures were taken like this one in Houston. He had an inspiring message which you can watch in video clips you’ll find in this section of the Opus Dei website.

In his latest letter the Prelate writes of Advent, “During this liturgical time, the Church urges us to consider the end of time, when Christ will come in the splendor of his glory to judge all men, and to prepare ourselves to remember his temporal birth, now twenty centuries ago.

The two comings are intimately related. In the first, divine mercy is especially evident; in the final one, his justice will be clearly seen. But both are a manifestation of God’s love for man, as St. Paul teaches: “For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, training us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:11-14).”

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you how wonderful my oldest daughter is. Chelsea was in an auto accident that left her paralyzed from the chest down.

Well she is a daily inspiration to her family and friends and now she’s got “Dad’s bug” and she’s blogging. So now she’s becoming an inspiration to a growing number of people around the country.

This past week marked the 7th anniversary of the day she had the accident and she wrote about it. I hope you will agree with me that she is something special and I’m so proud of her I just had to share this with you.

By the way, I have 2 other daughters and they are just as wonderful. Our family was really brought together in a positive way that is hard to describe by what happened to Chelsea.

I started this website with the idea of using it as a mechanism to evangelize the spirituality of Opus Dei and am still trying to find my voice for it. That’s a big part of why I’m not posting regularly. However, I’m going to continue to try to get into a rhythm.

I haven’t even looked at the Opus Dei website recently but thought I had better visit there more often. One of the interesting things they have a is a nice video you can watch with Doug Hinderer, a corporate executive who talks about growing up, finding Opus Dei, family issues, and misconceptions about Opus Dei.

The picture I’ve placed in the right sidebar is a framed print in our Blessed Sacrament chapel at the Cathedral here in Jefferson City. I’ve never seen the picture anywhere else and don’t know where to find it. I would love to have a copy.

If you know of this print or where it can be found please let me know.

I think it’s a beautiful representation of Our Lady and love seeing it during my weekly holy hour.

I was reminded how fragile life can be this morning when I learned that a good friend of mine passed away suddenly. I’m still waiting to find out more as the family takes time to deal with the shock.

In fact, shock is what I feel. He was a super champion for life and I know we’re all going to miss him. I’m sure there’s a reason for this and someday we might find out what that is.

In the meantime I pray for his soul and his family.

I’m sure I don’t need to remind you to vote today but I am anyway?

I’ve decided not to listen to any more of the rhetoric. I’ll read about it in the news tomorrow. But that doesn’t mean I don’t care. I’ve done my duty and registered my vote. Now it’s up to the rest of the country to stand up and be counted.

Does your one puny little vote count? You bet it does. What do you think makes up that big number at the end of the day? So, no matter what side you’re on please get out and add your vote. As I heard someone say yesterday, we have the freedom to do this at the cost of many, many lives and they should not be forgotten. I also think our vote is a way to honor those who are still in harm’s way defending our right to do this.

The travelling statue of Our Lady of Fatima is here in Jefferson City, MO. It arrived at Immaculate Conception Church this afternoon and will be there until tomorrow when it moves on to Our Lady of Lourdes in Columbia, MO.

My wife and I were able to stop for a visit for a little while this afternoon. Kneeling in front of Our Lady really helps bring a sense of peace in this crazy world.

If you ever have a chance to see the statue please take the time to offer some prayers for her intercession.

I have to be out of town next Tuesday so it was off to the Callaway County Courthouse today to vote by absentee ballot.

I know the election isn’t until next Tuesday but I urge you to use this right and make your voice heard. We really need to see the proposed Amendment 2 here in Missouri defeated in a big way.

Every vote does count!

At the University of Missouri football game yesterday a plane flew around the stadium pulling this sign.

Let’s keep getting the message out about the truth of this boondoggle and get it defeated next week.

If you need any information please let me know and I’ll be happy to send or point you to it.

In Missouri it looks like we’ve got a number of big names weighing in on the Amendment 2 ballot initiative that would allow human cloning and the destruction of human embryos. I haven’t seen this ad on tv yet but it’s on YouTube and got mentioned in USA Today, although I couldn’t find it in their online edition.

Let’s just hope people will look beyond the emotionalism and see the truth. Vote No on this please.

This would be the good. The people with common sense who are having to spend their hard earned money stopping this horrendous state constitutional amendment 2 that would allow human cloning even though the people behind it claim otherwise.

Don’t be fooled people. The enemies of life are clever.

This would be the bad and the ugly all wrapped into one.

Their billboards show a baby as if what they’re proposing would be good for them. Unfortunately they just want to create babies so they can kill them and harvest their parts. Not something I’m particularly fond of.

No, we don’t need or want embryonic stem cell research in this state or anywhere else.

Somehow the people of Missouri have allowed themselves to be suckered in by an emotional pitch for a pack of lies. The result is a state constitutional amendment that would not only allow human cloning but prevent any law from restricting research on human embryos.

It’s kind of hard to believe that people can be this cruel but then look at abortion in this country. This is all about money and one family in Kansas City who has already spent almost 16 million dollars promoting this phony amendement 2 problem.

So, if you really want to know the facts about what’s going on here I suggest you check out Reflections of a Paralytic. Of course I think it’s great. It’s my daughter’s new website. I’ll let you learn her story by visiting her website and looking at the growing amount of resources she’s linking to on the prolife issue and especially this cloning proposal we have facing us. BTW. That’s her wheelchair in the picture.

I can’t say how proud I am of her and what she’s doing. It’s very well done. In fact, look at what was just written about her on Kansas City Catholic. Her website already has more traffic and visitors than this one!

Things are sure heating up here in Missouri this election year. We’ve got a supposedly tight race for Senator with incumbent, Senator Jim Talent who has to run against this lady. I think we need to pray for both of them. Jim’s a good prolife legislator who I know personally and think highly of. Claire, well, let’s just pray for her.

Unfortunately Claire, who is supposed to be Catholic and a member of my parish here in Jefferson City, MO is very pro-death. I don’t know how people like that resolve that conflict in their minds. It’s sad really.

That’s my spiritual director, Fr. Bill Korte, with me in a quick picture I had taken when I saw him last week.

I try to see Fr. Korte once a month for spiritual direction. Work this summer has made that difficult but we found time finally. Having a spiritual director is highly recommended so that you’ve got someone who knows you and can make sure you’re staying on the path.

If you aren’t receiving spiritual direction you might ask your pastor who he would recommend. Maybe he would be available to see you periodically!