PathToHoliness

Today I was reminded how fleeting life can be. Indy race car driver Paul Dana died from injuries he received in a pre-race warmup before the Toyota Indy 300 in Homestead, FL. He died before the race and they still ran the race. I find that pretty insensitive to say the least.

This hits home because I had just interviewed Paul by phone yesterday afternoon for my company’s website, Domestic Fuel. As it turns out that was Paul’s last media interview. I can’t express my sadness that a young life had to end this way but as I’ve learned in so many ways, there is a reason and we may not ever know it.

I pray for Paul, his family, friends and teammates. He will be missed. The picture is me interviewing Paul at last year’s Indy 500 race when he was recovering from injuries earlier in the season.

This is turning into a series of church pictures but that’s okay for now. This past week I had to stay in Omaha, NE and got to attend Mass at St. Stephen the Martyr.

I’ll be going on retreat next weekend so hopefully I’ll have some more before then.

If I’m going to post pics of the churches I visit I guess I should certainly include my own home parish. It’s the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Jefferson City, MO. This is a side view with our newly installed statue of St. Joseph who greets you as you walk up to the church.

You can find out more about our diocese here.

I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. With all the travelling I do why not write about the church I visit for daily Mass?

This week it was north Kansas City not far from the airport. This is St. Therese Parish.

I got to attend Mass on two mornings. Very nice new church.

Here in Jefferson City, MO we’re blessed to have a wonderful group of cloistered Carmelite nuns. They have a recently remodeled public chapel with daily Mass.

It’s a beautiful day in mid-MO. I know the nuns like to garden so I’m betting they’re outside getting started on a new growing season.

They will answer the phone and have a visitors entrance where they can speak with you through a screen. They pray constantly and take prayer requests. If you need prayers you can’t ask for anyone better to help you out.

Tonight was Knights of Columbus meeting night. We had 10 guys become members. That’s a pretty big group for us. We’re nearing 300 members in Council 12992. One of the things I do for the council is host and maintain our website and as you might guess. It’s a blog. You can find it at: http://kofc12992.blogspot.com.

There’s a new biography out about the founder, Father Michael J. McGivney. It’s titled “Parish Priest” and may be ordered from Amazon.

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.

It’s fast and abstain day, the beginning of Lent. I was very happy to get a phone call from one of my college daughters who was checking in to double check on this. Good going babe.

I’m waiting on a flight in Dallas, heading to Anaheim and decided to have a slice of cheese pizza. As I was perusing the food offerings it just struck me again how blessed we are in this country with such an abundance of food. In fact, an over-abundance even. We hear and read so much about people with health and weight problems and I think a lot of it can be attributed to a food supply that’s so accessible. We’re almost never more than about 5 minutes from food somewhere, of some kind. The temptations supplied by the packaging and convenience of it all are extremely difficult to handle.

That just makes doing a true fast today and abstaining from meat that much more beneficial I think. So I encourage you. I’m trying and it’s not going to be easy since I have a corporate dinner tonight that I’m sure is not sensitive to the Catholics who will be attending.

Is it just me or do you feel persecuted by the media? I’m speaking in general here of course about what I refer to as the mainstream media (msm). ESPN, CBS, etc. You may wonder what I mean by mentioning ESPN. I will watch it for a game I want to see but it’s unbelievable what a bunch of junk is on there a lot of other times. I work out at the YMCA and it’s usually on a couple of the tv screens. Lately it seems like it’s just one story after another about some poor multi-million dollar athlete who’s in trouble. I don’t see any outrage from the reporters though. Most of them seem to only care about how they play and not about their conduct. They make excuses for them and want us to pity them for the troubled childhoods they’re escaping from.

At today’s Mass Father talked about the persecution of early Christians and how that came from many sources including even family. Well, after having to see stuff like on ESPN or all the other junk that’s being pushed through the media and on the internet I’d have to add what I can only call “the persecution by the media.”

What do you think?

Here’s an interesting place that I’ve been told was founded by some Opus Dei Cooperators. It’s the Institute for Media and Entertainment in New York.

The Institute for Media and Entertainment (IME) is dedicated to research and instruction that advance the lifelong career development of media and entertainment executives. The Institute emphasizes personal ethics as a core resource for professionals and their organizations.

You really don’t associate the word ethics with much in the media world today. Here’s an excerpt from the letter from the President, Jim Palos:

The second defining feature involves the interplay between media/entertainment products and culture. The media and entertainment sectors exercise a powerful influence on society, affecting the attitudes we hold and the mores by which we live. IME challenges its students to acknowledge this responsibility before society, and to consider the kind of effect they want to have on culture. We hope to help them become agents for developing material that appeals to what is most noble in the human person, challenging all of us to be persons who live in the service of others.

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.

I had coffee this afternoon with a good friend from St. Louis who was in town. John lives at the Wespine Study Center. I’d point you to their website but they really don’t have one, just a domain with their address on it. Hey guys, I’ll help you set one up.

He said he’d be sending me some ideas for content here. We’ll see what happens. I’ll be going on retreat at the end of March and John will be the “leader.”

On another note, as I was Googling for Opus Dei I noticed a number of stories about the personal prelature and the upcoming release of the movie version of the “Da Vinci Code.” Like this one in the Delaware News Journal. Here’s an excerpt:

But now the low-profile spiritual community is starting a drive to improve its image ahead of a major film based on the book — and that campaign begins at the group’s front door, where a sign invites fans of the Dan Brown novel to learn about “the real Opus Dei.”

“The unfortunate thing is there are going to be tens of millions of people who will read the novel and see the movie and have that be their only exposure to Opus Dei,” said Brian Finnerty, a spokesman for the group. “Because the book is marketed as being in some ways factual, it’s difficult for people to tell where the lines between fact and fiction are.”

I haven’t read the book. Don’t have any interest in doing so. And I certainly don’t want to see the movie. Sorry Tom (Hanks).

Really behind on posting again.

I’m going to figure out a way to change this since I’ve been trying to blog here like I do on my professional sites. So here’s the new idea. I’ll post daily and they’ll be short, but still include links to timely items of interest (hopefully).

For example, I’ve been wanting to write about the current situation with our MO Senator, Jim Talent. He’s always been so very outspoken about his prolife beliefs and until just recently has exhibited that in his offices. However, he just removed his name as a co-sponsor of a Senate bill to ban cloning. His reasons are not good and I don’t see how he can spin his way out of this one. I believe he even mentioned the need to “compromise.” There’s never a need to compromise about life in my opinion. I’m highly disappointed in him and the next thing I’m going to do when I finish here is write him a letter to let him know how I feel. I hope you will too.

You can do so here.

I have a daughter attending Ave Maria University. It’s one school that I feel very comfortable with having my children attend and for a lot of reasons. She’s loving it. We hope to move there someday.

The town of Ave Maria, FL is being built as we speak and you can get on a list to keep updated on their progress. A new campus will be built along with a town. It looks like progress is being made so that homes can be built within the next couple years.

It’s a very prolife kind of weekend, especially in Washington, DC. My 23 year old daughter is there for the first time. She’s wanted to go for a long time. A group of her college friends from Ave Maria University made the trip from Naples yesterday morning. If you see a group on tv in red sweatshirts it might be them.

There will be a vigil Mass again this year at the Basilica of of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. This picture is from last year’s Mass and can be found on the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops website. The Mass will be this evening at 8pm est. with Cardinal William Keeler celebrating and giving the homily. You can see a pdf file of some of the activies taking place this weekend here.

EWTN will be featuring live coverage beginning tomorrow.

Here’s the prayer for the helpless unborn from EWTN:

Heavenly Father, in Your love for us, protect against the wickedness of the devil, those helpless little ones to whom You have given the gift of life.

We ask this through Jesus Christ, Your Son, Our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen.