PathToHoliness

I’m on the final day of my annual retreat which is put on by the Wespine Study Center in St. Louis, MO. It’s actually held at the Cedar Creek Conference Center in New Haven, MO. I like to think of it as my time to re-charge my spiritual batteries for another year. The retreat usually comes at a time when I feel like I really need it. Maybe after a number of years your soul gets into a rhythm.

We have a wonderful chapel in which the priest presents a series of meditations and where we hold daily Mass.

Wespine offers weekend retreats for working men seeking to further develop their relationship with God. The schedule includes daily Mass and Gospel reflections by a priest of Opus Dei, with Confession and spiritual direction available throughout the weekend.

The retreats are held during the spring at Cedar Creek Conference Center, 14 miles west of Washington, Missouri. The retreats run from 10:30 a.m. on Friday to 2:00 p.m. on Sunday.

There are also retreats held here for women that are put on by the Lindell Center, which is located in St. Louis as well.

The Chrism Mass is always one of my favorite Masses of the year because it is when all of the priests gather to renew their committment to serve. The witness of devoted priests is one of the things that makes me proud to be Catholic and I love to see them all together in one place. It is a source of hope to know that so many men have literally given their lives in service to Christ and His Church. I was not able to attend our Chrism Mass this year, but my mother was kind enough to send me this picture:

We have had our share of heartbreak over the years, of priests leaving their vocations, some who were very close friends of ours. That is why it is imperative that we pray for our priests who are not immune to temptation and human weakness.

St. Faustina’s prayer for priests:

“O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church: Grant it love and the light of Your Spirit, and give power to the words of Priests so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to You, O Lord. Lord, give us holy Priests; You yourself maintain them in holiness. O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil’s traps and snares which are continually being set for the soul of Priests. May the power of Your mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of Priests, for You can do all things.” (Diary #1052)

Pope Benedict’s prayer intentions for the month of April:

Pope Benedict’s general prayer intention is: “That Christians, even in the difficult and complex situations of present-day society, may not tire of proclaiming with their lives that Christ’s resurrection is the source of peace and of hope”.

His mission intention is: “That the future priests of the young Churches may be constantly more formed culturally and spiritually to evangelize their nations and the whole world”.

H/T American Papist. Also from the Papist: The Popemobile has arrived! Be sure to check out Benedict in America for all the details of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit in just 12 days!

Speaking of popes, today is the anniversary of the death of John Paul II. See my post at Reflections: JP II and the Culture of Life. Here are pics of your humble blog hosts greeting the late pontiff in 2001:

Today we celebrate the feast of the Annunciation, when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced that she had found favor with God and would conceive and bear a son who would be called the Son of the Most High. This day calls to mind two very specific moments which correspond with the culture of life.

Read more from my post on Reflections of a Paralytic.

The Annunciation – Luke 1:26-38

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.

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And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.

He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.”

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

Zenit has the Vatican’s translation of Pope Benedict XVI’s message for Easter (h/t Pope Benedict XVI Blog):

Resurrexi, et adhuc tecum sum. Alleluia! I have risen, I am still with you. Alleluia! Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus, crucified and risen, repeats this joyful proclamation to us today: the Easter proclamation. Let us welcome it with deep wonder and gratitude!

Read More

Also, along with the Knights of Columbus website that dad linked to yesterday, be sure to check out Benedict in America, a blog with information about our Holy Father’s visit next month.

Catholic blogger Jen at Et Tu? came into the Church at the 2007 Easter Vigil. She has a wonderful one year anniversary reflection centered on the Eucharist:

When I received my first Communion at Easter Vigil last year I had come to accept that the teaching on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is true. Or, perhaps more accurately, I was willing to accept on faith that it was not false. I was undoubtedly being led to the Catholic Church, and found its defense of this teaching to be solid and compelling, so I trusted that it was true in some mysterious way, even though I didn’t really get it. That was the best I could do, and I never expected to understand it any more than that. Even as the months have rolled by, after receiving Communion week after week, I still don’t know how it works. I don’t even have a visceral reaction when I first see the consecrated host held above the altar, and don’t think I ever felt the Holy Spirit hit me like a ton of bricks the moment the consecrated host was placed on my tongue. And yet, despite the lack of immediate emotions, despite the fact that I can’t tell you exactly how it all works…I believe now with all my heart that it is true. I know that I eat the flesh and drink the blood of God at the Mass, and that it is the source of my strength. Read more.

Jen has been a real gift to me. Her blog reminds me of this quote from St. Josemaria:

Conversion is a matter of a moment. Sanctification is the work of a lifetime. (The Way 285)

Conversion is nothing without the work of sanctification – a life spent in cooperation with God’s graces, confident in His mercy and divine providence. Jen lets us all in on her own personal journey along the path to holiness, including sharing her spiritual struggles that anyone striving to live out holiness in their daily lives can relate to.

Happy anniversary Jen, and welcome home to all of you who have come into the Church this Easter season!

As Pope Benedict calls for an end to bloodshed in Iraq, recalling the “tragic loss” of Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul who was kidnapped and killed last month, and tensions between radical Islam and the West continue to escalate there are signs of hope.

Earlier this month Vatican officials and some Muslim leaders met in Rome to lay the groundwork for landmark Catholic-Islamic talks later this year. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has been calling for expanded interfaith talks. The predominently Muslim country of Qatar has seen the opening of the first ever Catholic church. Negotiations are underway to build the first Catholic church in Saudi Arabia. And Pope Benedict baptized an outspoken Muslim convert at this year’s Easter Vigil service in St. Peter’s Basilica.

None of these things will bring immediate or groundbreaking peace, but they are steps in the right direction and signs of hope for the future.

See also:
A Common Word – the official website from Muslim scholars seeking dialogue between religions (h/t Driving Out the Snakes)

The Knights of Columbus have created a website to help us keep up with the Pope’s trip to America next month. It’s going to be interesting to see if they do any posting onto the blog they have built into it.

They’ve also created a prayer for his trip as well.

Almighty Father, who pours forth blessings in abundance upon us, we humbly pray that you will inspire, guide and protect Pope Benedict XVI on his pastoral visit to the United States.

Lord God, bless our Holy Father who comes as a messenger of peace and charity to all people of faith and good will.

May his presence in the United States serve to build up the bonds that unite us who are each made in your image and likeness, and may his teaching and witness strengthen the faith of the People of God.

Father, we lovingly entrust Pope Benedict’s visit to the care of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of the Americas.

Through her prayers may he be preserved from all harm, and may he shine forth with the truth of the Gospel that he proclaims, and may his presence among us foster a renewal of the Church in our country.

We make this prayer through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Rejoice in the Risen Christ!

Christ is Risen (Luke 24:1-35)

But at daybreak on the first day of the week they took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them. They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.” And they remembered his words. Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles, but their story seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them.

But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone; then he went home amazed at what had happened.

Now that very day two of them were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures.

As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning (within us) while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Today’s Office has a great meditation for Holy Saturday. Since Fr. Jay Toborowsky has already posted the whole reading on his blog, I will just point you in that direction. It is from what is only called an “ancient homily on Holy Saturday”. Check it out (h/t Driving Out the Snakes).

Surprise, surprise, I also have found an appropriate excerpt from Spe Salvi as well:

Christ descended into “Hell” and is therefore close to those cast into it, transforming their darkness into light. Suffering and torment is still terrible and well- nigh unbearable. Yet the star of hope has risen—the anchor of the heart reaches the very throne of God. Instead of evil being unleashed within man, the light shines victorious: suffering—without ceasing to be suffering—becomes, despite everything, a hymn of praise (37).

The second part of the Easter Triduum consists of the Veneration of the Cross. My camera phone didn’t take a very good picture of this at the service we attended at St. Andrews in Holts Summit, MO last night.

I think Chelsea has written a good post on the Cross, something that so many in our society won’t even take the time to think about. We have a lot of crosses and don’t usually see them as ways to grow closer to Christ. I know I have this problem.

Venerating the Cross helped me to consider how upset I get at all the little things that go wrong instead of thanking God for the opportunity to shoulder my little tiny part.

Here it is Holy Saturday, a day that can best be described as a day of waiting with expectation. At least that’s how I’ve always felt. It’s a day for rest and contemplation, for an especially good examination of our conscience.

In today’s culture it is considered loving for families to end the lives of their loved ones instead of allowing them to suffer and thus to suffer with them. We kill the unborn instead of giving birth to a disabled child, we starve and dehydrate the severely handicapped who are unable to communicate with us, and we hasten the death of the elderly and the terminally ill. All to avoid or eradicate suffering. But is this true love?

Mother Teresa once said that true love means to “give until it hurts.” This is the true meaning of “consolation”. In his encyclical, Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict explains that the Latin word con-solatio, consolation, “suggests being with the other in his solitude, so that it ceases to be solitude” (para, 38). True love means sacrifice – sacrifice which requires the renunciation of self in such a way that we not only love the one who suffers, but we actually take on another’s suffering as our very own.

Love simply cannot exist without this painful renunciation of myself, for otherwise it becomes pure selfishness and thereby ceases to be love. (38)

To become a person who truly loves is to suffer with the other and for others out of love. There is another quote from Mother Teresa that goes:

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.

This is the paradox of the Cross which we celebrate today. Love grows through suffering. Mother Teresa surely lived this out in her work with the poorest of the poor, no doubt using for herself the model of Christ’s Passion and death which is the model of true love and consolation. As Pope Benedict writes:

God cannot suffer, but he can suffer with. Man is worth so much to God that he himself became man in order to suffer with man in an utterly real way—in flesh and blood—as is revealed to us in the account of Jesus’s Passion. Hence in all human suffering we are joined by one who experiences and carries that suffering with us; hence con-solatio is present in all suffering, the consolation of God’s compassionate love—and so the star of hope rises (39)

The Cross is for Christ a burden of love for all humankind. We are called to this same love as Christ has said, “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you” (John 15:12). There is “no greater love” than to lay down one’s life for another and, I would say, to “suffer with” the other. By taking up our own crosses and those of our suffering brothers and sisters, uniting them with the Cross of our Salvation, not only will all truly be consoled, but also our love, and our capacity to love more, will grow as a result.

If we ever want to see the image of true love, we have only to gaze upon the Cross.

The Easter Triduum is one of my favorite times of the year. Yesterday at our Church, Cathedral of St. Joseph, we attended the evening Mass.

Our Bishop celebrated the Mass and afterward we had the procession with the Blessed Sacrament which was reposed for adoration until midnight in our side chapel.

We are blessed to have 24/7 Adoration here as well.

Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.” (Lk. 22:19-20)

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world…Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” (Jn. 6:51, 53-56)

The recent revelations about the illegal activities and infidelities of New York’s mayors should remind us how easy it is to fall from grace and that we are all in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness.

There’s nothing like a retreat deep in the heart of Lent to really awaken the senses to the weight and reality of my own sin and how I have deeply offended God in my own life. No matter how “on track” I think I am with God’s plans, there is always room for improvement and I should never consider myself better than anyone else.

Holy Week is an excellent time to reflect on and acknowledge our sinfulness and come to the great sacrament of God’s mercy.

One of the Confirmation candidates at my table brought up that oh-so common objection to the sacrament of Reconciliation, “why do we need to confess our sins to a priest, a man, when we can just go directly to God on our own and tell Him we’re sorry?” Apart from explaining that it is a Sacrament instituted by Christ (Jn. 20:23) for our benefit and that the priest acts in His person, not a mere man, I also found this passage from St. Faustina’s Diary (1602) in the words of Christ (I was also impressed with the way the other candidates at our table spoke out in defense of confession):

“[W]hen you go to confession, to this fountain of My mercy, the Blood and Water which came forth from My Heart always flows down upon your soul and ennobles it. every time you go to confession, immerse yourself entirely in My mercy, with great trust, so that i may pour the bounty of My grace upon your soul. When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I Myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy. Tell souls that from this fount of mercy souls draw graces solely with the vessal of trust. If their trust is great, there is no limit to My generosity. The torrents of grace inundate humble souls. The proud remain always in poverty and misery, because My grace turns away from them to humble souls.”

It is easy to become complacent, especially when we look at the world in all its madness – war, terrorism, murder, abuse, heavy drug use, etc… – and think, hey, I’m not so bad, at least I haven’t killed anyone, I don’t really hate my neighbor, I don’t abuse drugs, and I am filled with so much love for my family and friends. But we should not be so proud. Truthfully, as fallen people, we cannot help but offend God in the smallest matters. Even one selfish thought is an act of offense and can close our hearts to the grace of God. We should detest sin so as to be willing to die rather than to offend our Lord in even the smallest matter (2 Mc 7).

All have sinned and are deprived of God’s glory, but we rejoice because we are justified through the redemption in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:23-25). This is what He died for! What are you waiting for? Go to confession and receive the grace and mercy of God!! Even if you have been away from the Sacraments for a long time, God is always waiting for you to come back home (Lk. 15:11-32)!

Examination of Conscience

Read: Spitzer Case Should Serve as Warning to Christians by Jonathan Falwell.
Also read about confession from a convert’s viewpoint