Ordination Video

...from Grassroots Films.

Pray for Bishops and Priests

Pray for all bishops and priests....

From Burgos Cathedral.

Madonna and Child

Found at Burgos Cathedral, Castile y León. Simply sublime.

Avalanche

I've been buried under an avalanche of projects. Having given up Facebook, Twitter, and blogging (but not the Divine Office), I've found that I really do have much more time for accomplishing tasks. But I thought I'd drop by today to let you know that I'm alive and well. Soon, I'll put a link here to one of those projects.

For those of you in the coastal plain, don't forget the inaugural Traditional Missa Solemnis at St. Mary's, Wilmington, tomorrow evening at 7 PM. Fr. Paul Parkerson will be the Celebrant. The Schola Vox Clara and the Sacred Heart Choir of Dunn will be assisting. The TLM will be offered the last Sunday of every month at 7 PM.

New Wallpaper

Here's my new wallpaper. It takes a lot to displace my San Clemente mosaic. But these are the seminarians of the Diocese of Raleigh. Click on the picture for a larger resolution.



Mary, Queen of the Apostles, pray for them.
St. John Vianney, patron of priests, pray for them.

Profound Thanks

...to Jesus Our King and Lord and Mary His Glorious Mother for this answer to the generous call to contemplate His Face. My dear friend QM enters monastic life today. What a privilege to share a phone call yesterday and hear the joy of anticipation. Indeed, what a privilege to share in praying for discernment these past few years. God bless, Q, and please pray for us who are out here wrestling with worldly concerns. May the beauty of His tabernacles fill you with all joy and peace. I'll miss you, but my heart is united with yours. Everytime I pray with the rosary of blue beads that you made for me, I'll always remember you.

Ave maris stella

by Edvard Grieg

New RCIA Class

...two men from the Anglican tradition, one who's been married to a cradle Catholic for almost thirty years, and another who could no longer tolerate the lack of authority. The latter gentleman has been spiritually fed by the programs and televised Masses on EWTN. He contacted Catholics Come Home, who then forwarded his email to me.

Pray for the instruction team in your parish and for those seeking to enter the Church. The step to obey the Lord by coming into full communion is often marked by some serious obstacles. The candidates/catechumens undergo heavy spiritual attacks. Especially for those being received into the Church, the first Confession is such a time of spiritual attacks.

Pray for the catechists that they be faithful to teaching the Catholic Faith and not some watered-down version that makes it palatable to people. There's nothing more frustrating than meeting converts and hearing them say, "How come I didn't learn that in RCIA?" D'oh. Catechists, you have this one chance to teach the Faith. Don't be a wimp. So teach what the Church teaches about Real Presence. Teach about mortal sin, about fasting, about disciplines, all that stuff that you think people might be afraid of are exactly what people need to separate themselves from this sick world. Why should they make a change of religion? Oh, and don't forget about what the Church teaches about contraception and abortion.

I shall now get off my Monday soapbox.

Fearsome nun

....helps apprehend a perp.

Thou art Fair

Tota pulchra es, Maria et macula originalis non est in te. Vestimentum tuum candidum quasi nix, et facies tua sicut sol. Tota pulchra es, Maria, et macula originalis non est in te. Tu gloria Jerusalem, tu laetitia Israel, tu honorificentia populi nostri. Tota pulchra es, Maria.



You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain is not in you. Your clothing is white as snow, and your face is like the sun. You are all beautiful, Mary, and the original stain [of sin] is not in you. You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, you give honour to our people. You are all beautiful, Mary.

God's Dogs

New Class of Novitiates in the Province of St. Joseph!

On Saturday, August 8, 2009, the Solemnity of St. Dominic, 11 men received the habit of the Order of Friars Preachers and began their canonical year of novitiate at St. Gertrude Priory in Cincinnati, OH. They join the current 9 novices who will make their first profession August 15 on the Solemnity of the Assumption. Needless to say, there is hardly a spare room in the novitiate with 20 novices living together for another week!

Awesome!

Shallow

Apologies to my readers for the lack of substantial posts lately. School starts next week and so the race is on for us teachers. Long days and long nights of preparation. Summer heat has finally arrived here which makes the short hike from the office to the car an enervating experience. It's incomprehensible to think that in month, we'll be unpacking sweaters that we just put away.

We survived the spending bacchanalia of the past weekend. The smell of crayons wasn't enough to take the edge off of the annoying long lines at Staples. I loved the yearly end-of-summer ritual of buying crayons as a child. The new Crayolas were among my prized possessions. As the school year progressed, I remember carefully peeling back the wrapper to sharpen them and then using up the shavings to create some other work of art. These days, it's all about iPods, and cellphones, and laptop computers. The thrill of crayons is gone, I'm afraid, relegated to another time and place.

On the catechist front, RCIA moves on to the catechumenate stage. Soon, there'll be a baptism or two for a couple of people who desperately need the Sacrament. I'm trying to convince one of the gentlemen to be baptized in the Old Rite, the beauty and power of the whole rite just seems so right for someone who's waited all his life to become a Christian. The use of exorcised salt, the laying on of the priest's stole, the words of exorcism....powerful stuff.

Along with the inexorable return to school, there are three joyous events in the life of friends. One who took on the Dominican habit last Saturday on the Feast of St. Dominic, another who'll be entering the Passionist Nuns in Whitesville, KY, and the third who'll be entering the Poor Clares in Arizona. It has been a privilege to share in their path of discernment, praying for them, listening to them in the late hours of the night while they tried to listen to the Divine Spouse.

Life is good!

Vocation moments

...as a married spouse....why are fitted sheets so hard to fold?

And yes, they can be a source of lively discussion. They fit wonderfully on the mattress, but straight out of the dryer and into the linen press...well, that's a road for holiness.

Overheard in the narthex

"I wonder why she didn't program 'I Am the Bread of Life' for any of the hymns today?"

Dilemma

...It's tax-free weekend....should I brave the hordes in the stores this weekend to get pencils, filler paper, erasers, colored pencils, and shoes? Is it worth it? Hmmmmm. I should have gotten up earlier and gone at 3 AM.

My Lenovo Thinkpad got fried by the power adapter on the fritz. I was too busy to notice that the little black box was turning evil. Sigh. I really liked my Lenovo. This weekend, I could get a new one at a local Best Buy...Toshibas, HP, a wide array of choices. I wonder though, if it's worth having portability of computing power. It was great to have while traveling overseas to download pictures and connect to the internet.

But here at home, there's a desktop in every room. Do I really need another glowing electricity-sucking, time-waster of a gadget?

I've been pondering this for awhile now, wondering if I should upgrade my cellphone, get the latest iPod, whatever-else-gadget. My thought is that all these things really make me more of a slave to technology. More and more, I'm finding that spending time in the garden and having lots of hours of Adoration (our Adoration chapel is thinly manned this summer so I'm subbing for people) have shown me my own all-too-real dependence on being wired. I'm not the better for all these gadgets. Really, seriously. A good book, like The Bible, say, or Summa or the Early Church Fathers, OH! and let's not forget the Sacrament of Penance that are much more efficacious in connecting me with the thing most needful. And it's not the latest news or gadget. It's a Person.

When was the last time you were in Adoration? Or in the Confessional? Or at Mass?

War Zone

...in my own garden. The hummingbirds are in full-blown war over the hummingbird feeders. Mind you, I have several. But no, King Hummer must be established. So we have dive-bombing miniature kamikaze birds flying around the house. It's amusing while watching inside. Beware when stepping foot outside the door.

This morning, while out deadheading flowers, several hummers buzzed by me. And here I was wearing an innocuous shade of blue. I know better than to wear red or pink or yellow. Me they buzzed. The one that fills their feeders with sweet nectar! Humpf!

Opposition

So much for hopey-changey.

ClunkerCare meets with angry crowds.

Oh, yeah, I'm part of the angry peeps, but I've not received a check in the mail. No organizer called me. And yes, I do have half a brain.

Say No to Clunker, er, ObamaCare. Both from the mind of the most intelligent president ever.

First Friday

Pray for the faithful who suffer for the faith in lands that are inimical to the Catholic Faith.

Another Priest Murdered.

León Cathedral

Next major stop on the El Camino Santiago Pilgrimage Route. This was a day full of photographer's frustration. The sky was overcast and so the stained glass windows inside were dark and difficult to photograph. Even with all that, it was hard not to be impressed by the soaring vaulted ceilings and the stained glass windows that were both devotional and humorous, too. One could see why this cathedral is also known as The House of Light.










Smiling Christ the Judge


Condemned souls being eaten by demons. Love the boiling pots!




La Virgen Blanca


The choir was gated so I couldn't enter to photograph the details as I was in able to do in Burgos. Plus it was so dark that I had to set the ISO at pretty high setting.


15th Century Retablo in the Capilla Mayor by Nicolás Francés

First Saturday Devotion

For Sanctification of Priests

Divine Savior, Jesus Christ, who have entrusted your work of redemption to the priests, who take your place on earth, I offer you, through the hands of your most holy Mother, for the sanctification of your priests and future priests this whole day, all my prayers, works, joys, sacrifices and sufferings. Give us saintly priests. Grant to them apostolic hearts, filled with love for you and all the souls belonging to you, so that, being themselves sanctified in you, they may sanctify us who are entrusted to their care and bring us safely into Heaven.

Loving Jesus, bless all their priestly work and sacrifice. Bless all their prayers and words at the altar and in the confessional, in the pulpit, in the school and at the sickbed. Call many young men to the priesthood and the monastic life. Protect and sanctify all who will become your priests. And grant to the souls of the priests who have departed this life, eternal rest.

And do you, Mary, Mother of all priests, take them under your special protection and lead them ever to the highest priestly sanctity.

~sent by the Curé of Ars Prayer Group