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“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
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There was an article in the NY Times , about two villages in Michigan that are producing priests and sisters like crazy.
I have some sad but good news, in that a former academic colleague of mine – who is also called Philippa! – has just passed away. The good news part is that she had an awful form of cancer, and that her sufferings are now over, and that she was able to die surrounded by family and friends.
She was not a Catholic, and we didn’t agree on much in that area or in other areas, but she was always very kind to me (and indeed to everyone she met). She was a very intelligent, generous and dedicated teacher. The other good news is that I will be having Masses said for the repose of her soul.
Well, right now my life is not so good. But I finally did catch that mouse that has been plaguing me, so I guess that counts for something.
I am joyfully awaiting the birth of my 22 grandchild…..the 8th for my son and daughter-in-law…..
I recently discovered a beautiful, vibrant, totally faithful order of nuns called the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady, Mother of the Church. I contacted them to pray for my sister-in-law and received such a warm, loving response that it gladdened my heart. Check out their website: http://sistersofcharity.com/
Note their statement on the HHS mandate.
My province (Southern Dominicans USA) just accepted three zealous young men into our novitiate. And I’ve been appointed Promoter of Preaching by the provincial diffinitorium. Pray for us all!
Fr. Philip Neri, OP
Much Good News this week;
1. I am blessed to have regular access to the sacraments of Confession and Eucharist (confession weekly, and the ability to get to mass 4 out of every 7 days).
2. I am blessed to have access to public rosaries in Church twice per week and Adoration once a week (Plus first Saturdays).
3. I am surrounded by loving, honest parishioners at our rural NO parish and priests who though overworked (the lot of rural priests the world over) make all this possible.
4. I am married to a supportive husband who ensures that when he is able to drive me, (as busses aren’t always reliable here) I can get to church for the above (can’t drive; have a guide dog, use access technology to navigate the internet.
5. have health and stability (God be praised)
6. As we are going to see friends in Sydney in ten days’ time, I may well be able to go to an EF mass at Maternal heart of mary (Lewisham, Sydney) for St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s day!! With confession beforehand!!! with the amazing Fr. Duncan Wong!!!! (FSSP) but allied with the Diocese of Sydney. Please pray that I can actually get there to the 10:30 Mass). My husband is willing to pass the time in a nearby café while I am thus occupied for two hours or thereabouts before the two hour drive back to the Shoal haven – what a blessing!! (pray that one day he is constrained to come in, even if he just sits up the back and watches the show, so to speak).
7. I will also be bringing sacramental (oil, incense and water) for RR blessings if the priests have time. (pray that they do).
8. I can worship in safety without fear of harrassement imprisonment or death – pray for the Iraqi Christians and Syrian Christians fleeing those cities overtaken by ISIS et al.
9. I have a Bible and CCC in Braille, the technology to access the internet via speech output and Braille, a guide dog, and family who will support me to live the best I can (husband, brother and his family.
10. God has placed on my heart the ability to get down to brass tacks in confession plus slowly ramp up to 3 rosaries and more per day (it is my goal to do all 15 mysteries plus CDM daily with Luminous Mysteries 3 times over on Sundays).
11. We have amazingly good Catholic blogs such as this, STM’s and others with which we can educate ourselves about the riches of Catholic Christianity.
12. We have an Amazing Redeemer before whom we can bring militant atheist family and friends in prayer that their hardened heaerts may be softened.
1. I am now officially going to be the first Undergrad Seminarian sent to Sacred Heart Major Seminary (we normally send our undergrad guys to SJV)
2. Our Diocese/one of the towns in our Diocese made Hell’s Bible (the NY Times), in a favorable light (last Saturday, two of the five men ordained priests were identical twins.) http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/17/us/in-two-michigan-villages-a-higher-calling-is-often-heard.html?smid=fb-share&_r=1
The beautiful communion rail from the recently-closed St. John’s Church in St. Paul (the great Fr. Welzbacher’s final parish) is being re-purposed as the new communion rail at Church of All Saints (FSSP) in Minneapolis to replace the current, rather lackluster rail.
This week the Bishop of Albany will confer the sacrament of confirmation to 15 young people who desired that the sacrament be conferred in the usus antiquior! Prior to their reception of the sacrament, this same group will pray the rosary for prolife with their new shepherd in a rally for life organized by our Knights of Columbus. Please pray for these young people and their Bishop, that God give them fortitude in their actions which give witness to God’s goodness.
RE: MichaelTMS comment above: I was honored to attend the ordination of these two holy priests long with three other holy young men this past Saturday – YES 5 new Priests!!! I am a fairly new Catholic and had never attended an ordination before – it was beautiful and inspiring. We are blessed that Fr. Todd (he and his twin brother were pictured in the NYT article mentioned above) will be coming to our parish as Parochial Vicar.
I’m aware that this is a time of transition for many priests – so we should, even more than ever, keep them in our prayers!
Safe travels, Fr. Z!
Our oldest son and his girl friend got engaged last week. In the same week, he got a promotion at work! What a deal!!! Very thankful to God for all His oversight and answered prayers!
My good news: I’ve made huge progress in my discernment recently. I’ve definitely come to see that if I’m meant to be a nun, this order I’ve visited is my family, and this monastery I’ve visited is my home. My time there was awesome, and I just felt like a fish in water. That alone is a huge hurdle crossed.
So I’m maybe 90% sure this is it. Please say a prayer for me, though, as there’s a little medical thing I need to address. It is more than likely totally benign and just annoying, but I must still get it checked out because if it’s not benign, it might be an obstacle to the life I’m looking at. If it’s benign, though, I think I’m just about ready to ask Mother for permission to enter. :-D
My wife and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary yesterday.
I’m enrolled in a M.A. program in Theology and have, by the grace of God, managed straight A’s. Forgive the ego moment, but if you knew me, you would no doubt let out a gasp of shock :). God Bless,
Ryan
Our parochial vicar, who has been offering us weekday EF Masses on his own time (not on the schedule), is celebrating his fifth anniversary of ordination with a High Mass in the Extraordinary Form with a most excellent visiting choir…
Maybe this will spark enough interest so that we will have an occasional EF Mass on the schedule. Oh well, let me be optimistic and change “occasional” to “weekly”…!
God is good…I don’t need surgery this summer, which is an enormous blessing to me and (I hope) a help to my family. We have many other things to contend with over the next three months, and I can face them with a lighter heart now.
One of my loved ones, who had stopped going to Mass regularly for many years, recently began attending Mass every Sunday AND he went back to Confession for the first time in ages.
I have received a first class relic of St Pio. It is now safe in it’s new reliquary which is taken to be blessed after Low Mass in an hours time. That is my good news!
One of the transitional deacons in my diocese, whom I have known since his later years of theology, is going to be ordained a priest on Saturday, and I’m blessed to be able to serve at the Mass with my brother seminarians.
1. I got to go to Mass everyday for the octave of Pentecost last week. And normally I consider myself lucky if I get a rare chance to go once in a while.
2. I witnessed the bishop of Lincoln ordain two men to the sacred priesthood this past weekend. The Mass went from 9 to 12:45, and it was probably the best Mass I’ve ever attended.
3. I just got back from Mass celebrated by one of those newly-ordained priests, and received a first blessing.
4. I might have an opportunity to go to two more solemn high Masses this week.
The miracle for the beatification of Venerable Fulton Sheen has been approved by the theological commission. It know goes to the cardinal, then the pope.
http://www.archbishopsheencause.org/recent-news/archbishop-sheen-prayer-league/359
I went to confession this morning. I’ve been able to go to Mass daily for the last month or so, and should be able to continue doing so for the rest of the summer.
Mine seems rather shallow, but these days I’m happy for anything that brings a smile. So, my family is heading to Omaha tomorrow to see our team play in the college World Series. While the school has been lousy in its treatment of the Catholic student group and religious freedom, the baseball coach is a man of honor and a real patriot. I don’t love the school, but I’m thrilled for him and his kids! Go Dores!!!
Good news? It doesn’t exactly feel like it, but it is closure to something I have been praying about.
For a couple of weeks, there has been an announcement in our bulletin, that our Bishop is forming a new class for Deacons. Several fellow parishioners had come up to me and actually suggested that I go and follow through. I felt pulled and was really praying hard about it. Was this something God wants from me; or was it something I wanted for me? I love serving in any way I can, but is this REALLY what God wants from me? If it is, I’d do it in a heartbeat with hesitation, but I needed something more – what I wasn’t sure. I just wanted to make sure, somehow – someway, that I wasn’t wrong guessing God.
I was at Bible study Sunday evening, where Fr. Bill Halbing has started a new series on “Learning How to Listen to the Holy Spirit”. All of a sudden, as I was listening to the lesson, this thought popped into my mind out of nowhere. It wasn’t something I heard with my ears, but I definitely heard it with my heart – the voice said – “I gave you a family. I want you to take care of them, first”.
Somehow, I just know that was not something from my subconscious. It felt like the Holy Spirit was helping me out with the decision. I will trust and obey. And maybe, just maybe, when my children are a bit older and don’t need their Dad as much – there will be another opportunity. If not, I’ll just plug onward, serving God however I can as a lay person.
Excuse me …. meant “without hesitation”. I need to proofread myself better.
However, on a very different note, my son Joseph graduated from the 8th Grade at Holy Savior Academy in South Plainfield, NJ. last Friday. He was awarded the Holy Savior Academy Home School Association Award for overall academic excellence and for being an example of Catholic Christian values. And if that wasn’t enough, my 7th Grade daughter Cara was chosen to sing the Alleluia before the Gospel reading during the ceremony. I apologize if I sound like I’m bragging, but I am so proud of my two kids. They are really good and such gifts that God has chosen to bless me and my wife with. Joey is going on to Bishop George Ahr High School next year in their Honors program. We are hoping his sister will re-join him there a year later.
Its not really something new, but I became aware of how well this little church down the road would suit the EF Mass. Its pretty small, but it has a communion rail and a choir loft. I’ve just had that happy, hopeful thought on my mind a lot this week…
Yesterday was a truly rotten and very long day at work because of my own mistakes and those of various other folks. I got to the car about an hour after I’d hoped to leave only to find I had a flat tire and that my newish car didn’t come with a jack. Long hot wait for the auto club. Cell phone isn’t working well either. What’s so good about all that? Well, I got frustrated and angry about all of the above, but I didn’t act out like I would have if left to my own devices. So that’s something.
What is my good news? Last Sunday after leaving Holy Innocents’ in Manhattan a woman who was also at the Mass had tears in her eyes. “This was so beautiful. I haven’t been to a mass like that in over 40 years.”
Brick by brick as you would say.
Hawaii – Bishop Silva: he has done something heroic. Please pray for him.
Hawaii has 1,000,000 potential voters & 600,000 do not vote, highest disconnect in the USA.
After the Same Sex Marriage law was passed, Christian denominations began to mobilize to register at least 10% of that 600,000 and that would be sufficient to change the landscape here and enable Christian-values candidates to get elected.
Bishop Silva has mandated this weekend, the glorious Corpus Christi, that every single church have voter registration forms in the pews to be filled out and collected before the final blessing. He has already received backlash by the Fishwrap-type folk for not feeding the hungry and housing the homeless but sticking the church’s neck where it doesn’t belong. His letter follws:
May 30, 2014
To All Parishioners in the Diocese of Honolulu
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
I am writing about a very important issue for our community: voting. With all the hype about “separation of
church and state” we can be deceived into thinking that our participation in the political life of our
community has nothing to do with our Catholic faith. But here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church
says (emphases added):
#2240: Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally
obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one’s country….
#2255: It is the duty of citizens to work with civil authority for building up society in a spirit of
truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom.
#1915: As far as possible citizens should take an active part in public life. The manner of this
participation may vary from one country or culture to another. “One must pay tribute to those
nations whose systems permit the largest possible number of the citizens to take part in public
life in a climate of genuine freedom.” (Gaudium et Spes #84.2)
While the Catholic Church in the United States cannot endorse any particular candidate for public office, the
people we elect are very important in embodying the values that we hold dear as Catholics, not only for the
good of our own Church, but for the common good. Therefore reflecting on the values that each candidate is
likely to embody is essential to our faithful citizenship. Among the values that are essential are: respect for
life from the moment of conception to natural death; the sanctity of marriage between one man and one
woman as the basis of the healthy family, which leads to a healthy culture; care for the poor and most
vulnerable; freedom based on the truth of the human person and religious freedom.
Hawaii has the lowest voter participation in the country, and in order to exercise our moral duty, we want to
encourage every eligible voter to vote in the upcoming primary and general elections. Knowing the
candidates and the issues is an essential exercise of our responsibility; but unless we vote, our voices will not
be heard. For this reason we will be conducting a voter registration campaign in our parishes in the next few
weeks. We ask all those who are not already registered to fill out a voter registration application, which will
be made available to you at Mass the weekend of June 21/22. We will guide you through the process. We
encourage you to select the permanent absentee voter option, so that you will always receive the ballot in the
mail and will have more time to study it and to fill it out. We also urge prayers during this election time, so
that all Hawaii’s citizens may be guided by the Spirit of Truth and may exercise a right for which many have
given their lives. Blessings!
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Larry Silva
Bishop of Honolulu
The Traditional Latin Mass is thriving in my neck of the woods.
Hierarchs with spines seem to be popping up all over.
I was recently accepted for entrance to the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming. I’ll be entering through the monastic enclosure on September 15. Please pray for me and for my family.
Our 4th child is due July 26th, if a boy, the name will be Leo Benedict….in any case our pastor will do the baptism using the extraordinary form, not his first time either. We belong to a diocesan parish by the way.
Good/OK news: I’m alive, have my Faith, my health, far too many possessions, plenty of food, and have the even better news others have posted here to ponder and pray about.
Hubby’s school year is almost at an end. It appears as if the “U” rating given him by his anti-catholic principal is being overturned! That principal is gone and the new one has given him a program for next year (and rating him Highly Effective besides). An old friend recommended him to the local Community College for adjunct work, and it also looks as if he will be paid his back overtime from last year, as well as picking up some work from this year.
We got a new, larger hot water heater.
I had a troublesome tooth pulled yesterday.
All-in-all, we have much to be thankful for.
I witnessed an EMHC, who protested when a communicant attempted self-instinction at Mass yesterday (and apparently was successful, alas). I can’t remember having seen that before.
We have had a rough year – the death of my father after an extended and debilitating illness, the death of my mother 3 weeks ago after a 10-month battle with cancer, my husband’s leukemia and bone infection.
He went back to the oncologist today and we feared the worst because his white cell count had taken a big spike at his last visit.
Thanks be to God – not only is the cell count increasing more slowly than his oncologist had expected, there is a new whiz-bang drug out that has been producing remarkable results in his type of leukemia. When I was speaking with my mother’s oncologist, he had mentioned the same drug – one of his patients was referred in a wheelchair in excruciating pain, and 6 weeks later was walking, pain-free.
Other good news – our new son-in-law (he and my daughter were married in December with as much Latin as we could arrange and absolutely perfect music) has received a promotion at work and may be made a partner soon . . . . :-)
Large Corpus Christi Procession in Central London this Sunday
This Sunday we have our FIRST Corpus Christi Procession from the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street to St James’s Church, Spanish Place. We will be making a stop at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral en route. This will be a major public witness in Central London – we intend to stop some traffic on Oxford Street! This will become an annual event.
The procession starts at 1715 and will conclude at around 1840. Holy Mass will be offered at 1900 at Spanish Place for those who wish to fulfill their obligation at the end of the procession.
If you are in London on Sunday then please do join us.
I have just found out that an old friend of mine has a son who is seriously considering the priesthood. It will be years yet before he can do much concrete about it, but I had the chance to listen to her heart, her reservations about it and give her a little encouragement.
Our parish has had the blessing of a newly ordained priest from our midst, and it has been beautiful to see it. One can only wonder how many other young men will see it all and give it a more serious consideration.