Our Lady and Sheen

Prayer request

Stephen — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 05:51:02 +0000

I’ve been told recently that a priest I know has come into some suffering, and I would like you to pray for him.

And also pray for me. Thanks!

“Toward the Gleam” a must read, unless you don’t want to

Stephen — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 17:40:36 +0000

I just finished reading the book, “Toward the Gleam” by T.M. Doran. This book was amazing, and I cant really tell you why I loved it, although this trailer by Insight Scoop does a great job explaining the intensity! Check it out

Take it for what it’s worth.

Stephen — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 05:33:34 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0Tckg686L4

Fr. Barron on “All Along the Watchtower”

Take a stand with notable catholic Stephen Colbert

Stephen — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:39:27 +0000

http://www.catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?p=19484
To take a stand for life in the next few hours.

St. Stephen, Protomartyr, pray for us.
Our Lady, conceived without sin, pray for us.
Archbishop Sheen, pray for us

For those looking for a GREAT cause to donate to.

Stephen — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 20:23:43 +0000

A young woman, Meris, with whom I am friends, is to enter the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist on August 28th. This is my favorite group of nuns if I had to choose only one (barely, barely, barely, barely edging out the Nashville Dominicans… not that there is a competition). I know that not everyone can give money, but everyone who has access to facebook or twitter can at least let everyone else know about the great cause to eliminate her debt so she can enter the convent.

Look at her video here: http://meriswantstobeanun.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/ask-5/

And also read her blog: http://meriswantstobeanun.wordpress.com/

She makes a great point in her video, she is not a 501 3c, so a gift is not tax deductible, however she will pray for you, and “prayer is better for you anyway.”

Any amount will help!

Archbishop Sheen, servant of the Eucharist, pray for her, and us!

Our Lady, Mother of the Eucharist, pray for her, and us!

Convictions of the soul verses pleasures of the body

Stephen — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 17:30:41 +0000

Knowing that “where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more,” would almost be re-phrased in today’s technological world as, “where Facebook causes craziness, sometimes it leads to inner peace.” Or something to that effect that will make you laugh so that I feel that I have done my job for the day. So enter looking at my News Feed and low and behold the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen page posted their mostly daily quote which always serves to build up the good or tear down the bad… or just give a smile. If you’re not following the page, please go to www.facebook.com/fultonjsheen.

“To Every Christian there comes the supreme moment when he must choose between temporal pleasure and eternal freedom. In order to save our souls, we must often run the risk of losing our bodies.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Archbishop Sheen would of course be speaking of the instant where we are faced with physical annihilation or spiritual death, but I find that this is equally as valuable as any other advice regarding dying to oneself… or as I like to say, “Sacrifice is the name of the game,” to which one of my close friends always adds on, “Yeah… if the game is call sacrifice.”

I find that “pleasurable” sins are sometimes not wrapped up in boxes they should be. Everyone knows that physical things can bring lots of “pleasure”… but man-o-man can the mental things sometimes be more “pleasurable.” I speak this time of pettiness. Pettiness is that one great sin that combines gossip with a little bit of wrath, and a touch of hatred of self and other as the final sprinkle on top. I find that sometimes it takes almost every scrap of my nearly non-existent virtue (not even of the heroic type). But, at some point I have to weigh the glory of heaven with that momentary deliciousness of singular pettiness.

In one corner, there is everything I would ever want, hope or dream for… and all I must do is give up that urge to be petty for that false pleasure. And in the other hand I have a moment, or five, or ten, or a thousand of great joy at sniping at someone with an eternity away from the Grace of God. Isn’t it humorous that human nature actually allows me to, for even one second, think that that’s a choice?

Oh well… if God didn’t love me for even one instant, I would have never existed.

Fulton Sheen, Pray for us!

Our Lady, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Installation of a Pastor

Stephen — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 18:52:35 +0000

One of the first Masses I attended in Natchitoches was the installation of the new pastor at the church that is now the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary… or just “Immaculate Conception.” Four years later, bright and early tomorrow morning, I will drive a few miles away to Campti to see a priest who is a friend of mine be formally handed over to his parish. I like to read canon law… sometimes when something is interesting, and so I went to the handy dandy Code of Canon Law and looked up some information on the role of a pastor. My favorite:

Can. 528 §2. The pastor is to see to it that the Most Holy Eucharist is the center of the parish assembly of the faithful.

§1 speaks of the necessity to inform the faithful of the Gospel, the spirit of the gospel, informing what social justice is, and interacting with the faithful so that the gospel message reaches those who may have stopped practicing the religion. But, section 2 makes it clear that “the Most Holy Eucharist is the center of the parish assembly of the faithful.” This intrigues me as I watch “catholics” attempt to make other issues the center of their parish. Even if Can. 528 is speaking purely of the actual assembly of the faithful for prayer in a literal sense, it seems to me that if the Eucharist is replaced by agendas or innovation, then we have a problem.

I guess when it comes down to it, I just enjoy that in the “dry” reading of law, you come to this sentence that is almost poetic and is definitely beautiful, speaking of our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament. It’s like reading a grocery list and halfway down the page your husband or wife or child or parents has written, “and I still love you.” How great is the love of even the lawyers of the Church.

Our Lady, conceived without sin and born to bear The Lord, pray for us.

Random Posts I like and Pass Along

Stephen — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 22:11:41 +0000

Fr. Z’s purgatory for bloggers.

Bishop Trautman gets into the “spirit” of things.

Vatican website for cell phones: mobile.vatican.va click “”Inglese” to get to the English site

A picture is worth a thousand reasons I enjoy being Catholic… but at least I enjoy laughing, too… so here’s this from Dante’s Google +

I think this is my newest favorite Saint story

Stephen — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 22:19:31 +0000

St. Augustine meets a child by the ocean. This tale was told by the priest at Mass this morning, and then I found it at Fr. Z’s blog. It is rather awesome. http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/06/st-augustine-the-trinity-and-the-boy/

Sacramental Saturday and Peace

Stephen — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 01:56:12 +0000

Hopefully, the following prayer is familiar to all Catholics:

“God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son
has reconciled the world to Himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us
for the forgiveness of sins;
Through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace,
and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”

The prayer of absolution that is prayed over the penitent during the Sacrament of Reconciliation is the reason we go to confession, in a way, so that we know that we are forgiven for the crimes we have committed against God.

Today turned out to be an extremely rough day for me, in addition to needing to go to Reconciliation, I had an encounter that upset me very greatly, one of those flubs that is a mixture of truth, misunderstanding, hurt feelings, and the like that occur on this Earth. I hadn’t felt this bad in a long time, especially knowing that it was something that could have been avoided. Which leads me back to the Sacrament.

I have heard the prayer of absolution many times in my life, in that I live my life more like a St. Peter than a St. John. Today, however, while the priest was praying over me, I heard clearly the “pardon and peace” portion of the prayer. And while I know that I was mostly there for the “I absolve you” to hear this was a great relief at a time that I needed it most. Not only does the Lord our God wish to give us absolution and pardon, but between the two He wishes us peace.

In Philippians 4:7 we hear clearly from St. Paul of the “peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” And we trust in this, the scriptures and the teachings of the Fathers reiterate God’s desire for us to rest in Him, and seek peace in Him. Not a lack of suffering as some would say, but rather an acceptance of God’s great Love for us. In John 14:27 Jesus Himself tells us, “Peace I leave with you: my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled: nor let it be afraid,” which is important enough to be repeated at the Sign of Peace during the Mass.

Continually we hear of peace, and the scriptures are many: Isaiah 26:3, Ephesians 6:23, John 20:19, and so on. There are two that I wish to mention, briefly.

Immediately following Confession today, I went to the Adoration Chapel and prayed Vespers. The first Psalm, Psalm 122, and in that Psalm we hear shouted by the Psalmist: “Peace be to your homes! May peace reign in your walls, in your palaces, peace!” and again “For love of my brethren and friends I say: ‘Peace upon you.’” It was a great validation of the feeling I had received.

Finally, at the end of the school year this year, a parent gave me a cross with 2 Thessalonians 3:16 written on it: “May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.”

Christians will complain, sometimes about the hard things in life. The crosses we bear, the torments we encounter, are indeed trying sometimes, as St. Peter tells us. Sometimes, however, the hardest things to accept in our Holy Faith are Joy and Peace, both of which God, who is Joy and who is Peace wants us to have. Sometimes it’s joy and peace in suffering, sometimes, however it’s just having joy and peace.

Let us remember that the Gospel is the Good News! It is not just the news. Archbishop Sheen, Blessed Pope John Paul II, Mother Theresa knew the joys of life in their own ways, but always in God’s infinite Love for us.

Archbishop Sheen, united with Our Lady whom you loved dearly, pray for us that peace may be in our homes and in ourselves.

“In peace I shall both lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me secure.” Psalm 4:9