In this episode, we talk about devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Home Enthronement of the Sacred Heart. I also talk a bit about what I use to produce my podcast.
– Music: “Precious Love” by Theresa Barle
– PodcastAnswerMan.com
– Article about the Pope Paul VI Institute
– Home Enthronement Center
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Have you ever thought about your own death? Did you wonder when it will be and where you will be? Did you ever think that you might die when you least expect it? You are probably thinking that I am being morbid. I’m not being morbid, Monastic and Religious life kept death at the front of their thoughts, especially in the past. Why would they want to think about death you ask, because Jesus said: “You know not the day or the hour.” “I come like a thief in the night.”
All of us need to be aware that the day, the time and the place of our death is already known to God. All of us you who are reading this and all of those who are not will die. There is not one person on earth who is immortal. Yes, we will live forever, but not by our own power. Jesus overcame the power of satan, sin and death and gave us the hope of eternal life. Death was destroyed and life is victorious because of the passion, death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
However, we must be aware that we are going to die and in the not too distant future. Everyone on this earth today will be gone in the next 100 years, give or take a few years. So, why do we need to know this? We need to reflect on our finite life, so that we can make the most of today. Today, I will live my baptismal call to the fullest, I will be the best priest that God has called me to be, I will be the best wife or husband, mother, father, son, daughter, student, trash collector, secretary, … that I can be, all for the glory of God and for the spread of His kingdom.
The sold reason that we are on this earth is to “know, love and serve” the Lord all the days of our life. We tend to live the best life when we know that our time is limited. So once again I ask you: Have you ever thought about your own death?
The day of Brother André’s canonization has finally arrived. On Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI will formally canonize the humble Brother of Montreal. For a humble, uneducated man, Brother André had deep effect on everyone he met. When his pastor saw his great devotion and took him to the Congregation of the Holy Cross, he left a not for the superior, “I’m sending you a saint.” At such a young age, Alfred Bessette had already taken up his cross to follow the Lord. By eleven years old, Alfred already lost both of his parents. When he was twenty, he emigrated to the United States for work. He lived, worked and visited many places in the New England Area. For a time, Alfred lived and worked in both Fall River. MA and Woonsocket, RI. Later, as a professed Religious he would return to visit family and friends. Brother André even visited my home parish, home of the first shrine to St. Theresa in the world, on at least two occasions.
Check out this great new site about Brother André.
St. Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal founded by Brother André.
Lisa Hendey and Pat Gohn are holding a gathering this Sunday, October 17th in Cambridge and Lisa and Susan Bailey on Monday, October 18th in Wellesley. For more information, click here!
In this episode, we continue our sound seeing tour in New Haven, CT. We see where the first Knights of Columbus council was founded at St. Mary’s Church in New Haven. From St. Mary’s we travel to the Knights of Columbus Museum for the special exhibit on Mother Theresa of Calcutta. In feedback, we return to the topic of Polycystic Ovary Disease and share some great Catholic resources to help people in these situations.
– Music: “Invisible People” byRyan Myers Band
– St. Mary’s Church – New Haven, CT
– Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction
– Fertility Care/ NaPro Technology (Fertility Care Centres of Europe)
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This week I learned that two priest friends with whom I was in the seminary passed on to eternal life. One was a Franciscan, the other Diocesan. They both had very different lives. The Franciscan was with the Holy Land Commissariat and died in Haifa. Fr. Joshua Doyle, OFM suffered from a number of physical illnesses throughout the years. He had a great love for our Lady and for the Blessed Sacrament. I remember one time when one of the superiors in a Franciscan house in Maine was disturbed by Fr. Joshua’s personal prayer time. Fr. Joshua would sit in the chapel with his eyes transfixed on the tabernacle. The superior, with a tone of disgust in his voice said, “What are you looking at?”. Fr. Joshua knew not “what” he was looking at but “whom” he was looking at and communing with. I will always be grateful for his friendship and the example he gave me in his love for our Lord and the Church.
Fr. Anthony Dandry was a parish priest from New Jersey. I remember the day I met Tony in the seminary. The first thing he asked me was, “Do you wear the brown scapular?” Fr. Dandry was deeply devoted to Our Lady and there was no hiding it. He was Italian, not in name only, it oozed from his personality. He was very outgoing and jolly. Fr. Tony loved being a priest. The very center of his life was his daily Mass. Fr. Tony also suffered from illness. He had a severe issue with diabetes. Diabetes began to take away Fr. Tony’s eyesight. At the end, he retired due to health and lives in a trailer where he had an altar to celebrate his daily Mass.
Although I have not seen either Fr. Joshua or Fr. Tony for a number of years, they have had a lasting effect on my life. I remember them both in sadness because I will not see them again in this life, but I know we will be joined together in the Kingdom as brother priests forever with our eternal High Priest, Jesus Christ.
Although they were both men who sought holiness in their lives, I remember them in my Masses and prayers. They would both tell me and I ask of you to prayer for their eternal rest and peace in grateful thanksgiving to God for two priests.
In this episode, we go on the first part of a sound seeing tour in New Haven, CT. We begin our tour at St. Mary’s Church. In this church, we visit the tomb of Knights of Columbus founder, Father Michael J. McGivney.
– Music: “Teach Me To Love (for Mother Teresa)” by Susan Bailey
– St. Mary’s Church – New Haven, CT
cast (at) iPadre (dot) net
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In this episode, we have some great feedback and talk about: polycystic ovary syndrome, in vitro fertilization, making sense out of suffering and I return to the tree that I talked about in my last blog post. Check out the great links
– “There Be Dragons” Movie
– In Vitro Fertilization with Fr. Tad Pacholczyk
– Indie’s Adventures
cast (at) iPadre (dot) net
Feedback line: 206-202-1231
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While on retreat this week, I was inspired by a big tree in front of the retreat house where I was staying. The bottom part of the trunk must have been at least eight feet across, all of it’s roots were deep in the ground. This tree had no roots sticking out of the ground like many trees, it was firmly rooted in the ground.
I would not be able to guess how old the tree is, but I can say for certain the is is several hundred years old, if not a thousand or more. At a certain point in the trunk, maybe nine feet up, it breaks off into two main branches. Both branches are very healthy, although one is much thicker and goes up much higher than the other. The two trunks also had many small branches coming out from them and they were all covered with many leaves. Both parts of the trunk are very important. Without one part of the trunk and their many branches, the tree would be incomplete. It is a very full tree, however there were some leaves dried up on the ground surrounding the tree.
This tree reminded me of the Catholic Church. The Church was founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ and Her roots go very deep. This is a tree built on rock. The trunk is very large because it was founded on the rock of Peter and the Apostles.
At one point it seems to be divided, but it is not. The Church is made up of both the eastern and western traditions. The east and west are connected by the thick trunk which is Peter and the Bishops united with him. The two trunks above are the east and the west. Both the east and the west have their own unique traditions and Liturgies. It is one tree, and with all of Her branches and leaves is a beautiful work of God. Without one trunk or the other, She would be incomplete. The dead leaves that are lying on the ground are those people and priests who have separated themselves from the Church, without the Church they loose their identity, wither and die.
Many people debate who the woman in today’s Gospel was. I think Our Lord kept this woman’s identity hidden for a reason. The woman in today’s Gospel represents each one of us! That woman sought out our Lord, and she was not frightened of Him in her sinfulness. Everyone in the room knew what kin of a woman she was. She was known for her public sin, yet she had the nerve to approach Jesus.
Why did the woman seek out Jesus? He was known as a healer. He cast out demons, raised the dead, challenged the Pharisees and turned water into wine and did so much mor that “the world could not contain all the books” if everything were written abbot all Jesus did and said. This woman didn’t seek miracles, signs or wonders, she sought mercy, she sought love.
All of us are in need of Our Lord’s mercy and love. There is not one of us who foes not sin, and if we think we don’t we are deceived. All of us also need love. We were created to “know, love and serve God”, and our “hearts will be restless until they rest in” Him alone. All people need to kneel at the feet of Our Lord and seek mercy as did that unknown woman.
This woman also gives us another lesson. She came up behind Him, washed his feet with her tear, dried them with her hair and anointed them with precious perfume. Although we can not do exactly what that woman did, we can care for our Lord.
The unknown woman shows us the great care, love and reverence we should have for Our Lord present in the Blessed Sacrament. Do we show as much love as she did by our full, conscious and thoughtful care of the consecrated host when we approach the altar rail? Do we reverently take Him on our tongues or in our hands as the Church instructs us to do? Are we recollected before the Mass begins, during the celebration of the Mass and as we depart from the Church or are we more concerned with greeting the people around us?
If that woman were to attend Mass today, she would be gossiped about as being the most sinful person in town, but she would indeed be the one who treats the Most Holy Sacrament with the most loving reverence.