PathToHoliness

Pope Benedict XVI Saturday approved a decree recognizing the heroic virtue of Father Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus. The pope’s declaration significantly advances the priest’s process toward sainthood and gives the parish priest the distinction of “Venerable Servant of God.” If canonized, Father McGivney would be the first American born priest to be so honored.

“All of us who are members of the Knights of Columbus are profoundly grateful for this recognition of the holiness of our founder,” said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson. “The strength of the Knights of Columbus today is a testament to his timeless vision, his holiness and his ideals.”

The words of Christ to St. Faustina:

“There is more merit to one hour of meditation on my sorrowful Passion than there is to a whole year of flagellation that draws blood; the contemplation of my painful wounds is of great profit to you, and it brings Me great joy.”

That should give us motivation for meditating on Christ’s Passion this Holy Week!

Every year I go on retreat about this time. It’s lead by the women’s Opus Dei center in St. Louis. I’ve been going for a number of years now and I love them. They’re silent, reflective and much needed. I especially enjoy it when it comes so close to Holy Week. So I will be on retreat starting this evening until Sunday afternoon. Please pray for me! I will be praying for all of my readers!

Read St. Louis Catholic’s interview with the well-known Catholic apologist and Jewish convert Rosalind Moss about her in St. Louis with the permission of Archbishop Burke. Her plan is to “flood the world with holy habits as signs to God.” Some excerpts:

The desire that I have is to reach the poor, and the rich, and every class of society, and race, creed, tribe, tongue and people…

We will be a contemplative/active, evangelistic and teaching order. Contemplative and active, because service is the fruit of prayer, and we wanted nothing apart from prayer and apart from God…

we are in the process of designing the habits. And they will be to the floor (laughs), that’s for sure! We’re going to work with families, we’re going to teach the faith in the convent, we’re going to show films in the convent, we’re going to talk about God. I just want to reach people. I want to help families live for God.

The order will be under the patronage of St. Francis de Sales and they have already received dozens of vocation inquiries.

Last week’s Our Sunday Visitor had an excellent article (subscribers only) on the Angelus prayer and its possible contribution to the “pro-life arsenal.” The Angelus is a prayer typically repeated three times a day – 6 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. – recalling the conception and birth of Jesus Christ. Says OSV:

As people pray the Angelus, perhaps they will come to understand better the value of any human conception as they remember and honor the greatest conception of all time.

The words of the prayer:

Leader: The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
Response: And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary . . .
Leader: Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
Response: Be it done unto me according to your word.
Hail Mary
Leader: And the Word was made flesh,
Response: And dwelt among us.
Hail Mary . . .
Leader: Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
Response: That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Leader: Let us pray.
Response: Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an angel, may by his passion and cross be brought to the glory of his resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.
Amen.

JP II’s favorite passage from Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes 22, says that, “only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light.” Indeed, as the document goes on to explain, by His incarnation, Christ has united himself with every man and therefore fully reveals man to himself. Christ not only became man, but chose to identify totally with all humankind, even in its weakest and most vulnerable state. The more we meditate on the profound mystery of the Word made flesh, the more we come to understand and appreciate the dignity of every human person, born and unborn.

Note: during Easter the Regina Caeli is said in place of the Angelus.

This is great (h/t the Catholic Knight):

Visit Catholics Come Home

This looks like a very powerful documentary, from the same people (Grassroots Films) who brought you “Fishers of Men”. I’ve never seen Fishers, but have heard amazing things about it, so I finally ordered it from Amazon a few days ago.

This looks pretty interesting – the National Catholic Singles Conference. From its website:

The National Catholic Singles Conference (NCSC) was created to give single Catholics the opportunity to meet other like-minded singles and learn more about and share their Faith. Talks by dynamic speakers, time for prayer, and various social opportunities create an intense and inspiring weekend! In 2007 we had over 900 people at our two locations, Chicago and San Diego, combined. Don’t miss out in 2008! Join us in Chicago and San Diego for great speakers, food and fun!

The conference in Chicago is this April 25-27 at the Lincolnshire Marriott Resort and the one in San Diego is TBA. The weekend includes workshops involving: How Do I Know What God Wants Me to Do With My Life?, Why Are We Still Single (or Single Again)?, The Real Deal About Men; TBA (to the women), The Biology of the Theology of the Body and Building Strong Ministries. Also available will be the Mass, Praise and Worship, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, confessions and prayer teams, rosary walks and even dance lessons along with a dance on Saturday night.

Believe it or not, I’m actually considering attending. Since I left Ave Maria University and the little Catholic bubble that exists there, I think I might enjoy spending a few days with some like minded people my own age.

You can register here

Thanks be to God! Just got word today that Judge Joyce upheld the challenge by Missouri Cures Without Cloning to Secretary of State Robin Carnahan’s inaccurate and blatantly biased ballot summary for a constitutional amendment to truly ban human cloning in Missouri. I am incredibly pleased and quite frankly surprised at the ruling. The revised language is much closer to the purpose of the actual Amendment than Carnahan’s disgraceful language.

Because of the lawsuit, progress has been delayed for quite some time. So we still have very hard work ahead of us if we are to have any chance of getting this on the ballot in November, especially if the opposition decides to appeal in an effort to halt the signature gathering process. Please keep us in your prayers so that we can finally, truly ban human cloning in Missouri!

Try this one:
Rosary Crusade Safeguarding Embryonic Human Life

How to fit in at any church – pretty stupid, but kinda silly, too:

Thank you, God, for mac n cheese:

OMG! This is adorable – a little girl singing “Indescribable”

Here’s another Gospel singing small fry. We might be seeing her try out for American Idol sometime in the future:

As the world celebrates romance and love today I thought I would say a few words about true love. “So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1Corinth 13:13). So what is love? Or more accurately who is love? St. John answers this question telling us that, “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. In this is love perfected within us” (1 Jn. 4:16-17) In his encyclical, God is Love, Pope Benedict says that this is where our definition of love must begin. We love because God, who is love, first loved us. That is why he created us. But his love did not end with our creation. After the fall of man, God not only freed his chosen people from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, but he freed all of mankind from the slavery of sin by sending his only Son to be our redeemer (John 3:16) and calling us to the heavenly Marriage Feast which is “union with God through sharing in Jesus’ self-gift, sharing in his body and blood.” The best way to grow in love for another person is to grow in love for God. Then we can truly learn how to love as God loves.

A Valentine’s Day suggestion for couples: spend time in prayer together.

Advice from St. John Chrysostom: young husbands should say to their wives: “I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us… I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you.” (CCC 2365)

Yesterday 70,000 pilgrims celebrated the 150th anniversary of the visions and healings at Lourdes. My mother and I went to Lourdes in 2003 with the Knights of Malta and I gotta tell you, it wasn’t one of my favorite trips. Not only did I get sick and end up in a French hospital for five days, but it was cold and rainy there and I was stuck in this voiture, pictured here, during most of the time we spent away from the hotel. Lourdes is one of my favorite apparitions, but I’m not really into the whole Lourdes/cures thing nor have I ever been concerned with “being cured” myself. What fascinates me more is the entire story of Bernadette and the apparitions. How such an adolescent, illiterate on matters of faith and education, could retain such deep spiritual insights from Our Lady and have the courage to insist on the validity of her claims in the face of strict opposition from her superiors – pressure that didn’t cease behind the convent doors.

Interesting fact: Song of Bernadette was written by a Jewish author who escaped the Nazis by fleeing to Lourdes. There he was so impressed by the happenings there and thankful for his own escape from death, he promised God he would tell the world the story of Lourdes. I never knew that.

The Song of Bernadette
Song of Bernadette, book
Bernadette
The Passion of Bernadette
Bernadette Speaks

“This is the great mystery of our faith. We do not choose God, God chooses us. From all eternity we are hidden ‘in the shadow of God’s hand’ and ‘engraved in his palm.’ Before any human being touches us, God ‘forms us in secret’ and ‘textures us ‘ in the depth of the earth, and before any human being decides about us, God ‘knits us together in our mother’s womb.’ God loves us before any human person can show love to us. He loves us with a ‘first’ love, an unconditional love, wants us to be his beloved children, and tells us to become as loving as himself…

God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me. The question is not ‘How am I to find God?’ but ‘How am I to let myself be found by Him?’ The question is not ‘How am I to know God?’ but ‘How am I to let myself be known by him?’ And finally, the question is not ‘How am I to love God?’ but ‘How am I to let myself be loved by Him?'”

This is an excerpt from The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri J.M. Nouwen. I thought it was appropriate for the beginning on Lent and wanted to share it with you all. The greatest challenge of the spiritual life is not to love God, but to allow ourselves to be loved by Him. Not to ask for forgiveness, but to let go of our sins and allow ourselves to be forgiven. This Lent, through fasting and prayer we reflect on the emptiness of our lives without God. Let us also reflect on His great mercy and forgiveness and his desire to love us lavishly.

I have been seriously neglecting Path to Holiness lately. I’ve been torturing myself with politics and trying to keep up writing on Reflections. I hope to spend more time on both blogs and less time obsessing over politics. God bless you all this Lenten season!

This past week my Opus Dei Cooperator’s Circle met at my house. With all my travel I rarely get a chance to attend so I try to host at least once a year and then maybe I’ll actually make it.

The talk was on what St. Josemaria Escriva calls “Holy Intransigence.” I had to look up what the word meant even though I had an idea. He describes it this way (From The Way 397):

Be uncompromising in doctrine and conduct. But be yielding in manner. A mace of tempered steel, wrapped in a quilted covering.

Be uncompromising, but don’t be obstinate.

This is what I love about this saint. His spirituality is so simple and he puts it into simple words for us to understand and apply in our life. I think this is a great lesson to meditate on.