I need some good news.
What is your good news? Anything wonderful happen recently in your lives? A note about good things (and especially how grace is at work) in your lives are welcome.
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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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My wife and I have decided to have our fourth child (due at the end of January 2014) baptized using the Extraordinary Form, and the priest who has welcomed our three older children into the Faith and will be doing the same for Nbr. 4 was thrilled–this will be his first one!
Praying for you, Father!
My good news is that St. John Vianney seminary in St. Paul, MN, has 134 men who are all studying under the very awesome and Very Rev. Michael Becker to become future priests. The vocations crisis here is that the largest minor seminary in the United States is full to capacity and had to turn some men away!
I asked out new young priest (who can celebrate the Extraordinary Form) if we could ever have a Mass at our small mission church. (Unlike the main parish church we still have our alter rails!)
He said yes, he would love to come and celebrate a weekday Mass. Even for one or two people. I mentioned it to several parishioners who said they would love to attend. Even some from the main parish church 20 miles away.
Father Z, I would never have thought of asking if you had not been encouraging people to do what they can in this direction. This was so easy–we have a priest who is already trained!
Of course, this might start out as an occasional Mass, but it could lead to more. Next step will be Mass at the parish church.
Last Sunday (9/8), on Mary’s birthday, my wife gave birth to our first child, a son.
Be uplifted, Father. We have THE Good News! This life has so many trials, so many sufferings, and while it’s often hard to accept each one of them as a gift from God, each is an opportunity to take up our own Crosses and follow the Lord. If we glorify Him with our sufferings, we pray that when this earthly life passes away, we may have perfect peace in eternal adoration and praise of our Creator. Nothing else will matter.
Thank you for being a brave soldier of the Church Militant, Father Z, and leading us e-Faithful to God using the tools He gave you. (Remembering your Daily Battle Strategy post, and also just watched Mother Angelica show us how the Rosary is a most powerful weapon.)
I returned Sunday from a week in Lisieux, I have never spent so much time there and it was a great grace. I also spent a day on Mont Saint Michel to pray to St Michael – it is always a joy to go there. I also remembered, amongst other things, the prayer intentions of my fellow wdtprs’ters.
As St Thérèse entered Carmel to save souls and especially to pray for priests, I lit a Novena Candle for you on Saturday, Father Z, at the Basilica in front of the relic of a bone from her arm. It should still be happily burning away!
After my 9 month old had been ill with a terrible bronchial cold for almost three weeks, I begged St. Raphael’s intercession to heal her while up late night holding her as she coughed until almost gagging.
By the next night, the cough was gone, praise be to God.
“I asked out new young priest”…..
…..I hope he said “no”. ; ) Seriously, congrats on your good news! And congratulations to everyone commenting here. It’s a wonderful thing to hear about all the good things going on.
My good news is that a very special intention of mine, for which I have been praying fervently for several years, has been granted. I had the great joy of seeing my beloved husband enter the Church two weeks ago! Lisa P, if you are reading this, I am still praying for your husband’s conversion!
An excellent scholar, now seminarian, is putting the final touches on a thesis that will satisfy the requirements for a licentiate in theology. We’re getting a good one here, folks.
Sissy–
Yes, I meant OUR. I also misspelled altar.
But the good news outshines the typos!
Sissy: congratulations to you and your husband, I am so happy for your joy. God is good.
The honey bees are back in West Cork this year after a two-year disappearing act and the song thrush, absent for some time as well, has decided to have a go at our over-ripe figs on the tree.
The hazel nuts are coming on wonderfully well as are the rather late blueberries.
I had a phone call from my eldest son Sunday. My son, who was sexually abused in the 1980s by our assistant parish priest in the U.S., (a serial paedophile who later died in a prison ‘accident’), and after which abuse my son, for lack of a better word, became psychotic and drug-dependent for decades as a result.
My son has for years been dispensed by the Diocesan bishop from attending Mass as my son would go through mental agony from merely being in a church.
The reason my son phoned me yesterday was to tell me he had gone on his own last week to a Eucharistic adoration, received the Sacrament of Reconciliation, attended Mass, and received Holy Communion. He sounded so very much like his old self!
After 27 years of agony I have no illusions of a ready psychic recovery for my son but I count this as a miracle of grace.
@Bosco- I am truly overjoyed for your son and for you. When I hear stories like this, it always makes me think of Jesus rejoicing and holding the lost sheep in His arms. Thanks for sharing.
I should add that my son told me he prays for this priest (as do I every day). One of my son’s friends, abused by the same priest, took his own life.
I count it a great grace that I have my son. And that, my friends, is indeed good news!
My father had not practiced his Catholicism for my entire life; I’m 35. I’ve been praying for his soul ever since I returned to the faith. He recently became gravely ill. The illness was horrific, with hallucinations and violent outbursts. The hospital had to restrain him for weeks. He had a quintuple bypass and bladder cancer. After he had a couple surgeries I came into contact with a very good priest that agreed to visit him in the hospital. This was a few months ago on the Feast of the Sacred Heart. He was still not “competent” at the time but the priest changed my father’s heart. (One of the promises of the Sacred Heart is that priests will be given the ability to soften the most hardened hearts.) Not long after that he was released from the hospital and within a week went to confession for the first time in my life. He has been attending Sunday Mass every week unless he is not feeling well.
The moral of the story is: pray. Even when it seems that there is no hope, that things cannot get any worse. Do not despair, just pray. God hears our prayers and he works miracles. My father always said he was going straight to hell but I never gave up. And that lovely priest that visited him in the hospital, he is a beautiful soul. I had never met him before (he was referred to me by another priest) but he had the courage and the love to visit my father. He went where angels fear to tread:-) Now my father is becoming fervent in his faith and never leaves his rosary at home. God is so good.
Our daughter’s second surgery since April, a major one, went well and she is making progress in her recovery. The charges against the man who drove into us last December, destroying our car and causing injury to my husband and myself were upheld in court and he was found guilty. This was not a civil lawsuit, so no monetary gain to ourselves, but the conviction remains on his driving record for a few years, perhaps thereby forcing him to drive less aggressively and more attentively, so sparing others injury. Our son’s relocation to the other side of the country was successful and he and his family are happy in their new home. We had a couple of weeks of unseasonably warm and sunny weather, great for the crops soon to be harvested.
I have started researching my Irish family history. With in a couple weeks I found my grandfathers oldest brother! He died in WW1 and I even found out he is buried in a WW1 memorial in Belgium.
There are volunteers who will take a photo of the graves of war dead. So I hope to have a picture of his grave soon.
Fascinating what can be done on the internet.
We have an Army of Friars preparing to preach – 70 in formation!
I loved that, Siculum
“We have THE Good News!”
And there is good news out there. That homeless man that turned in that backpack he found, containing a Chinese man’s $42,000, his passport and papers started off hundreds of comments of all the good people others had encountered that never, ever make the news media.
My personal good news:
Yesterday was our anniversary. 46 years and still rejoicing in each other as we see each other as God’s gift to one another.
And our ongoing forever (God Willing) good news:
5 wonderful children, that we never stop thanking God for.
13 grandchildren that are growing in holiness. Their parents (our children and their spouses) have kept the Faith and all have a love for the TLM and their children reflect that.
God’s gifts to us are so humbling that it often brings tears to my eyes. So undeserving are we and God is so good.
My Great niece had her second son last Friday; My Great-Great-Nephew. Hard to believe that my niece is a grandmother.
Great news , Bosco. I’ll be praying for your son.
Dillyra: That is great news. My father had been away from the sacraments for 35 years. The day Pope Pius XII died, was his first heart-felt step towards his return to the Sacraments.
I have been blessed today with an intense sense of gratitude for the blessings God has put in my life. I got up early and before I left the house kissed my sleeping wife on the forehead. She is 5 months pregnant with our sixth child. Thank you, God, for this beautiful woman, the child she carries, and all my children. I went outside to get in my car. It was a very cool morning and the sky was crystal clear. The grandeur of God’s creation was on display in all the stars. Thank you, Lord, for the gift of creation you have given us. At 6am I met two friends at Church for prayer. We were blessed by the presence of the Holy Spirit. Thank you, God, for putting good men and role models in my life, and thank you for hearing my prayers. We then went to Mass at 7am. Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of salvation you offer me, and for the gift of free will that I may accept it.
This is all good news indeed.
Today has been a challenging day at work (not in a good way), and yet I see how my day and life are so disproportionately blessed compared to what I deserve. I know that tonight I should go to confession, so please pray for me so that I don’t let some distraction or lame excuse or “business” get in my way.
I’m a single mother of four, and was in serious financial straits, worried about how I would support my family, and no longer able to accept money from a source that would have compromised my faith. I prayed fervent novenas to St. Joseph for two specific intentions–to have enough to support my family, and to be able to do so from home, so I could still be with my very young children instead of shunting them off to daycare or public school, where they could be exposed to all sorts of moral evils. St. Joseph granted both my requests in a short amount of time. God delights to answer the prayers of His beloved children!
The father of one of my son’s high school classmates, who lost his wife six years ago, and who was an ordained Deacon, is in the seminary studying to become a priest.
My grandmother is continuing to recover from her aneurysm. My estranged older brother came to visit her in the hospital, which helped. She’s now in a nursing home doing rehab. I’m very grateful for everything.
Dillyra, Bosco — wow. God is very good.
I got a long-awaited promotion at work. Then I got to attend a Missa Cantata on my birthday.
Dear Bosco, astounding and great news, indeed!
The FSSP was recently allowed a Catholic Church in Minneapolis. I’m told it was an existing church that was scheduled to close. A local FSSP priest, Father Peter Bauknecht, was appointed pastor a couple of months ago. I had been to a few of his weekday Masses here locally, and met him a couple of times. He seems like a very good priest and a very nice man.
Someone told me that the FSSP Church in Minneapolis is doing very well with full Masses despite only being a couple of months since it was started. So, I’m glad to hear things are off to a good start for Father Bauknecht and wish him well.
My good news it that our pastor agreed to let our associate celebrate the Extraordinary Form in our parish. The best part is that he suggested that we do it on Sunday mornings!! Not a little of which has to do with the fact that I and several other parishioners read this blog… Brick by brick, Father! Praise the Lord!
The Young Ladies Sodality of our parish (FSSP) took a road trip to visit the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles ( http://www.benedictinesofmary.org) a little over a week ago. Even though it was close to 100 degrees, our girls helped the sisters in their garden for a while, and then we were able to join them in the chapel for the praying of the Divine Office. Their voices are even more beautiful in real life as they are on their CD’s! It was such a wonderful opportunity for these young ladies to see how the sisters live and work and pray.
We were even given an extra special gift that day. In July our beloved Assistant Pastor was transferred to a parish in another state. Imagine our surprise when we got to the convent and saw him digging holes in one of the fields! (The sisters are going to plant fruit trees.) He just happened to be there that week filling in as Chaplain. I think he was as surprised to see us as we were to see him.
Who knows, perhaps a religious vocation or two may be inspired by this visit.
At our Catholic Newman Center we passed out over 200 blessed crucifixes to our students this past Sunday so that everyone could have one in their dorm or apartment. Generous alumni and friends made it possible, I pray now that our Lord will make it fruitful.
As a plus, I used the Rituale Romanum for the blessing (on Saturday, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross). It is a beautiful and powerful prayer, so I made the text available to our students. Praise the Lord!
I passed my Ph.D theory qualifier exams. Everything else that remains to be done for my degree seems easy by comparison.
GOOD NEWS. My wife and I have 11 beautiful children ages 27 to 5 and we have a beautiful TLM we’ve been able to attend for 15 years. What else is there!! (from Guam)
The new Bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport, CT will be installed on Thursday, 9/19. The installation will be televised on EWTN.
I’ve got all sorts of little bits of good news. For one, I’m FINALLY losing some weight again after a plateau of well over a year.
Second, I have a friend who is teaching me Gregorian chant — awesomeness! (I’ve known a little bit for a long time, but she’s teaching me the real deal.)
Third, the summer is almost officially over, and soon my favorite season of the year will be upon us. Bring on the pumpkin, hot tea, cozy sweaters, and crisp air!
Fourth, after studying Latin for what seems like eons, I’m finally getting to the point where I can read a text without having to look up too much, unless it’s new vocabulary, so the work is paying off!
And lastly, several friends, coworkers, and acquaintances of mine are all either due to give birth to their babies in the next couple of weeks or have just given birth in the last couple of weeks. This includes a friend who’s miscarried several times due to and has so far only been able to bring one to term. She and her husband have been trying for the several years since the first kid, so this at long last will be her second, and she’s thrilled. Yay for babies! :-)
Oops — left out a word. That should say, “This includes a friend who’s miscarried several times due to fibroids…”
I am teaching 63 freshmen at a boys school the Catholic Faith and rejoice at this grave responsibility and great joy of helping young men think and live in tune with the mind of the Church.
Well, my wife is a gift from God: none the less, she needs prayers, with a biopsy scheduled for one week from tomorrow. She is working as hard as ever, as if nothing were the matter. Deo volente, nothing is.
My son, having suffered miserably in silence for years, is not only coming out of his suffering and its long after effects, by the grace of God, he is being understood for the strong, virtuous young man he is and always has been by people whom he loves and who love him, including a wonderful (and Catholic) mentor. No doctors, no drugs, just love at home and in the Church of Christ, the Catholic Church.
@Paul H, you know Abp. N fasts from meat on Fridays with the intent of fostering vocations and asks that the rest of us join him. I guess that’s doing something; ever since his arrival there are tons of seminarians. I knew that St. Paul Seminary was full the last few years and had first used all its guest rooms for seminarians, then rented space on an interim basis so they could have more seminarians but had no idea the minor seminary was a) the largest or b) turning men away.
@ Mark G, the Extraordinary Form was really the only thing missing in that neighborhood and wasn’t really available in a central location. They had crazy amounts of Latin Rite parishes, Byzantine Rite (2 sui juris Catholic Churches and at least 2 Orthodox Churches) and Maronite Rite.
My good news is that I went to Mass last night at St. Paul Seminary for the season opener of the Harry J Flynn Catechetical Institute, which is also at capacity. I was a few minutes late so ended up sitting among the seminarians, with an obstructed view of the Sanctuary but a perfect view of the new statue of Blessed John XXIII. One thing different here is that our seminarians take the CI with us, so for two years they take a class alongside the laity, learning more about us and the variances in catechesis. I sat next to a seminarian from my class.
My bishop, +Egan of Portsmouth, has sent our parish a priest who celebrates the Extraordinary Form. This evening that priest will celebrate Mass in the EF publicly for the first time since his arrival.
Last week our parish (Prince of Peace, Lewiston ME) started a new monthly Mass for First Saturday which is offered in the Extraordinary Form. Although the parish has a weekly TLM offered by the St. Gregory Latin Mass Chaplaincy, this is the first TLM offered by the parish directly. It was well attended although some of the regular daily mass goers seemed a little confused. Hopefully they’ll hang in there and get used to it.
In my own family, my oldest son has always wanted to get into construction, although he has a disability (in the Autism spectrum) that makes some verbal communication and comprehension hard for him. He started at a local community college that has an excellent program in Construction Technology. My wife is also attending with him partly for her own interests and to help him. They hope to start their own business when they graduate in 2 years. So far they are both doing very well, thanks be to God.
Mother General of Tyburn has approved my play on the foundress, Mother Marie Adele Garnier. This means I can send it to Mary’s Dowry, a production company which does short DVDs, some of which have been on EWTN. Pray they like it. I shall put a version of it on the blog in the next day or so. If there were any proceeds, the money would go to the Monastery.
There were 21 7th grade young ladies at the first session of CCD this week. I don’t know them apart yet because we handed out books and then got ready to attend Benediction with the rest of the students. Most had never participated before, but they didn’t wiggle. Step by step.
I am late to the game here, but had to share my good news because I am so proud:
My youngest brother, who had been kind of adrift in recent years, joined the US Air Force and graduated from basic training this week. Of all the pictures that my parents have sent back from Texas, this one is the most meaningful to me: http://www.flickr.com/photos/38885270@N04/9838736375/
Today, Sunday, after 34 years of marriage and prayers a friend stopped us in the church parking lot to tell us GREAT news.
The husband she had been praying for all this time was yesterday Baptized, Received his First Holy Communion and was Confirmed. What joy. This was done at our Novus Ordo parish church, but they have been going to Mass 70 miles away for an EF Mass on Sundays. They and another friend in the car with her want to sign our petition which another parishioner for an EF Mass here. They also want to find out where to get mantillas as they plan to go to Rome in October.
I have so much good news that if I were to write it all you’d be reading for days and days! :D
So I’ll just pick a couple of biggies :). First while there is no EF in my home state, YET ;), there is one in a neighboring state where we gratefully assist every Sunday. On Sunday 9/8, for Our Lady’s Birthday, we had a Marion procession complete with Rosary and beautifully sung LATIN Marion hymns. . One of the older parishioners said that there had not been one for 50 years. We are having another Marion procession on OCT. 12. And one a month thereafter! Then there is this Sundays homily, OUTSTANDING! Father explained how everyone of us who comes to Mass is like the 4 friends who carried the paralytic to Our Lord. We bring in our minds and hearts and prayers all those in our famalies who are paralyzed by sin and no longer come to Mass. Father then asked, “why do you think that Jesus told the paralytic to take up his stretcher? That stinky, dirty old stretcher that he didn’t need anymore. And what do you think that man did with it when he got it home? I think, and this is just my own opinion, that he put that stinky old stretcher in a place where all who entered the house could see it. And when he was asked about it, he would say, that was me before my encounter with Jesus and look at me now. ”
I had some small organs, in my neck, removed due to cancer. Due to complications the surgery left pretty noticeable scars. I use to cover them b/c I could tell it made people uncomfortable. My family often asked why I would not let the surgeon fix “at least the biggest one”, with an “easy procedure” like he wanted too. I would tell them that the same surgeon also told me that the first surgery would be an “easy procedure” which resulted in near death, almost a month in ICU, intubated on a resperator and in a coma, um no thanks…rather keep the ugly scar. Anyway after hearing Father’s homily I am glad I kept my scars. I won’t cover them anymore. Now when i look at my scars i think…look at that…i’m wearing mercy. I pray that if asked i can, without dissolving into tears, tell how I deserved wrath and received mercy. I long to tell them “come get you some!” Come find the one true God and His one true faith! I thank the good God for the Priesthood and constantly pray that Our Lady keep them safe.
I have more good news but this is already too long. Sorry Father. God bless you :)