Labor Day 2008

God our Father

by our labor You govern

and guide to perfection

the work of creation.

Hear our prayers and give all people work that enhances their human dignity

and draws them closer to each other in the service of their brothers and sisters.

American Bishops' Statement for 2008 ...... great reading:

http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/labor_day_2008.pdf

The Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus Clasping His Cross

by El Greco

"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."

Friday: the Feast of the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist

Death of John the Baptist John was imprisoned and executed by Herod for boldly preaching against his adulterous marriage. John spoke against Herod because he married his brother's wife, Herodias.

Herod imprisons John the Baptist Herod imprisoned John for the sake of Herodias. She held a grudge against John, and wanted him put to death. But Herod protected John because he enjoyed listening to him, and because his subjects thought John the Baptist was a prophet.

Herod's birthday Herod celebrated his birthday by hosting a banquet. During the feast, the daughter of Herodias danced before Herod and his guests. She so pleased Herod that he swore to give her anything she requested, up to half of his kingdom.

John the Baptist is beheaded The young woman went to her mother for guidance in what she should request. Herodias told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist. She asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Herod was sorry when he heard this. But because of his oath, and because of his dinner guests, Herod ordered the beheading of John.

John's disciples report to Jesus When John's disciples learned of his death, they took his body and laid it in a tomb. Then they went and told Jesus, who departed with his disciples to a deserted place.

Today is the Feast Day of St. Monica

Monica was born in North Africa. She was given in an arranged marriage by her parents to a pagan official. Her marriage was anything but good: her husband giving into a violent temper and to his lusts for other women. Her mother-in-law lived with them and was not a positive addition to their home life, makinig Monica's life even more of a burden.

Monica and her husband had three children: Augustine, Navigius and Perpetua. Through her prayers Monica was able to convert her husband and her mother-in-law to the faith in the year 370. He died a year later. Navigius and Perpetua entered the religious life.

Augustine proved to be more difficult but she kept up her prayers even begging priests to pray for him. Monica wrote that one priest did console her by saying to her: "it is not possible that the son of so many tears would perish."

Augustine was eventually Baptized by (Saint) Ambrose in the year 387. Monica died later that same year on the way home to Africa from Rome.

She is the patron saint of wives and victims of abuse.

Archbishop is Faithful in His Role as Catholic Leader

Personal Note: This past Sunday Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was interviewed on Meet the Press. In that interchange she voiced incorrect and misleading comments about the position of the Catholic Church and its teaching on human life. To allow her public and far-reaching remarks to go unchallenged would be a sin of neglect. Archbishop Chaput of Denver is a most courageous leader. Here is the entire text of his comments, very worth your time in reading:

"Catholic public leaders inconvenienced by the abortion debate tend to take a hard line in talking about the 'seeparation of Church and State'. But their idea of separation often seems to work one way. In fact, some officials also seem comfortable in the role of theologian. And that warrents some interest, not as a 'political' issue, but as a matter of accuracy and justice.

"Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a gifted public servant of strong convictions and many professional skills. Regrettably, knowledge of Catholic history and teaching does not seem to be one of them.

"Interviewed on Meet the Press August 24, Speaker Pelosi was asked when human life begins. She said the following:

'I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is over the centuries, the doctors of the Church have not been able to make that definition . . . St. Augustine said at three months. We don't know. The point is, is that it shouldn't have an impact on the woman's right to choose.'

"Since Speaker Pelosi has, in her words, studied the issue 'for a long time', she must know very well one of the premier works on the subject, Jesuit John Connery's Abortion: The Development of the Roman Catholic Perspective (Loyola, 1977). Here's how Connery concludes his study:

'The Christian tradition from the earliest days reveals a firm anti-abortion attitude . . . The condemnation of abortion did not depend on and was not limited in any way by theories regarding the time of fetal animation. Even during the many centuries when Church penal and penitential practice was based on the theory of delayed animation, the condemnation of abortion was never affected by it. Whatever one whould want to hold about the time if animation, or when the fetus became a human being in the strict sense of the term, abortion from the time of conception was considered wrong, and the time of animation was never looked on as a moral dividing line between permissible and impermissible abortion.'

"Or to put it in the blunter words of the great Lutheran pastor Deitrich Bonhoeffer:

'Destruction of the embryo in the mother's womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed on this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are concerned already with a human being or not is to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.'

"Ardent, practicing Catholics will quickly learn from the historical record that from apostolic times, the Christian tradition overwhelmingly held that abortion was grievously evil. In the absence of modern medical knowledge, some of the Early Fathers held that abortion was homocide; others that it was tantamount to homocide; and various scholars theorized about when and how the unborn child might be animated or 'ensouled'. But none diminished the unique evil of abortion as an attack on life itself, and the early Church closely associated abortion with infanticide. In short, from the beginning, the believing Christian community held that abortion was always, gravely wrong.

"Of course, we now know with biological certainty exactly when human life begins. Thus, today's religious alibis for abortion and a so-called 'right to choose' are nothig more than that - alibis that break radically with historic Christian and Catholic belief.

"Abortion kills an unborn, developing human life. It is gravely evil, and so are the envasions employed to justify it. Catholics who make excuses for it - whether they're famous or nor - fool only themselves and abuse the fidelity of those Catholics who do sincerely seek to follow the Gospel and live their Catholic faith.

"The duty of the Church and other religious communities is moral witness. The duty of the state and its officials is to serve the common good, which is always rooted in moral truth. A proper understanding of the 'separation of Church and State' does not imply a separation of faith from political life. But of course, it's always important to know what our faith actually teaches."

+Charles J.Chaput, Archibishop of Denver and +James D. Conley, Auxiliary Bishop of Denver

Intercession for Our Weather

Jesus calms the sea, again!

Another Weekend Movie Review

Because I believe that people should know a little bit about movies before they choose to attend, and becasue I believe that we need to hear something objective about that movie, I want to offer a few words on a regular basis regarding movies which are presently in the local theaters. You or a member of your family might well desire to "go to the movies", I hope these reviews will be helpful. Even if a person has already seen a particular movie it is a good thing to assess that movie for what might have been missed. So here we go:

Tropic Thunder was #1 at the box office last weekend. It beat out the smash hit Batman: The Dark Knight. Thunder stars quite a few major actors, among them Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey, Jr. A few notes from the Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting: relentlessly vulgar, non-stop rough language and profanity; strong violence and gore, torture, drug use and frank sexual references. Apparently not a family movie.

Today is the Feast of the Queenship of Mary

Today the Catholic Church throughout the world celebrates the feast of the Queenship of Mary.

It is only fitting that this title be attributed to Mary, she being the mother of Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe.

It is celebrated today becasue this day is the Octave (eighth day) of the feast of the Assumtion of Mary, the end of that celebrated feast.

Today is the Feast Day of St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Bernard was born in Dijon, France in the year 1090. He was raised with a great religious background by faithful parents. He enters the religious Order of Cistercians in 1112, bringing with him 30 of his relatives including five of his brothers. His youngest brother and widowed father entered the Order at a later date.

In the year 1115, Bernard was missioned to the abbey at Clairvaux, France where he became noted as a gifted spiritual writer.

He founded numerous monasteries throughout Europe.

Bernard died on this date in the year 1153.

St. Paul's Catholic Church, Pensacola

From the Cross high atop the Church structure to the expansive gathering area in front of the building, St. Paul's parishioners are sure to be proud of their new House of Worship.

Following is a look through this Church which you will see from a few photos I took today while on a tour with other priests and the Pastor, Father Douglas Halsema.

This experience reminds me of the last verse of this past Sunday's first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah: "For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples."

Congratulations to all of you at St. Paul's.

An Interior View

I took this shot to give you a view of the interior. The Church is far from ready, but it will be by Sunday.

I have to admit, this picture does not do justice to the beauty of this Church.

I will take more when it is completed.

The Nativity Window

Stained Glass Window of Their Patron Saint

The Good Shepherd Window

The Feast of St. Jane Frances de Chantal

Jane Frances was born in Dijon, France in 1572. In 1592 she married the Baron de Chantal and lived in a feudal castle in Bourbilly.

She restored order to the household, which was in ruin, and brought it back to prosperity.

Her husband was acidentally killed and she was left a widow with four children at the age of 28.

During Lent of 1604 she visited her father in Dijon and listened to the preaching of Francis de Sales (later to be a Saint). He became her spiritual director.

In 1610 she founded the Congregation of the Visitation.

When St. Jane died in the year 1641, she had already established over 86 monateries throughout Europe.

Today there is a visitation Monastery in Mobile, AL open for retreats, a spiritual get-a-way or other like purposes.

A Mother's Faith Heals her Daughter

"Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David."

"It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs."

"Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters."

O Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish."

Off to the Movies

This movie has been advertised quite often on tv so I checked out a few reviews. Seems as though it might well be worth seeing.

The US Catholic Bishops review board has some hing praise:

"This little gem of a film with its truthful emotions, likable characters, and themes of faith and community concern (even when Henry commits a desperate act) should resonate warmly with Catholic viewers."

Another reviewer writes:

Henry Poole finds out that in the midst of the stuff of daily life, with all of its pain and struggle, hope really can save you. A truly good film."

Perhaps worth an enjoyable time.

The Feast of The Assumption of Mary

The Glorious Feast of the Virgin Mary

"Our tainted nature's solitary boast"
William Wordsworth

Maxmillian Kolbe Feast Day

Maxmillian Kolbe (Jan 8, 1894 - August 14, 1941) was born Rajmund Kolbe and became a Polish Franciscan Friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger (a man with a wife and children) in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz in Poland.

He was canonized a Saint on Oct 10, 1982 by Pope John Paul II who declared Kolbe a martyr of charity.

Kole is the patron saint of drug addicts, political prisioners, families, journalists, prisoners, and the pro-life movement.

John Paul II declared him the "Patron Saint of our Difficult Century."

Pope Benedict's Vacation

Peope Benedict XVI ended his two week vacation in the Alps yesterday and returned to his summer home last night which is outside the city of Rome. The residence is in the town of Castel Gandolfo. It's a unique place and I had the priviledge of visiting there in the 1980's to see Pope John Paul II.

Our Pope has been working on a new book, the title of which (and the content as well) has not been disclosed. His writings are brilliant and worth reading. They're not what you might call "beach reading" but rather are serious treatments of Catholic issues. If you get a chance you should do yourself a favor and purchase one of his latest works. "Jesus of Nazareth" and "The Apostles" are both excellent. (I would suggest using Amazon.com for great prices on books.)

Long Live the Pope!

Saint Clare of Assisi, born Chiara Offreduccio (July 16, 1194 – August 11, 1253) was an Italian saint and one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. She founded the Order of Poor Ladies, a monastic religious order for women in the Franciscan tradition. Following her death, the order she founded was renamed in her honor as the Order of Saint Clare, commonly referred to today as the Poor Clares.
Clare of Assisi was born in Assisi, Umbria, as the eldest daughter of Favorino Scifi, Count of Sasso-Rosso and his wife Ortolana. Ortolana was a very devout woman who had undertaken pilgrimages to Rome, Santiago de Compostela and the Holy Land. Later on in her life, Ortolana entered Clare's monastery.[1]
On March 20, 1212, Clare's parents had decided she would marry a wealthy young man. In desperation Clare escaped her home and sought refuge from St. Francis, who received her into religious life.
Clare lived for a very brief period in a nearby Benedictine monastery of nuns, San Paolo delle Abadesse, and then again for a short period at a house of female penitents, Sant'Angelo in Panza on Monte Subasio. Her sister Agnes of Assisi also left her parents and followed Clare to Sant'Angelo.
Clare and Agnes soon moved to the church of San Damiano, which Francis himself had rebuilt. Other women joined them there, and San Damiano became known for its radically austere lifestyle. The women were at first known as the "Poor Ladies".
San Damiano became the focal point for Clare's new religious order, which was known in her lifetime as the "Order of San Damiano.” San Damiano emerged as the most important house in the order, and Clare became its undisputed leader. By 1263, just ten years after Clare's death, the order became known as the Order of Saint Clare.


Unlike the Franciscan friars, whose members moved around the country to preach, Saint Clare's sisters lived in enclosure, since an itinerant life was hardly conceivable at the time for women. Their life consisted of manual labour and prayer.
For a time the order was directed by Francis himself. Then in 1216, Clare accepted the role of abbess of San Damiano. She also played a significant role in encouraging and aiding Francis, whom she saw as a spiritual father figure, and she took care of him during his illnesses at the end of his life, until his death in 1226.
After Francis's death, Clare continued to promote the growth of her order. Clare died at the age of 59. Her remains were interred at the chapel of San Giorgio while construction of a church to hold her remains was being constructed.


On August 15, 1255, Pope Alexander IV canonized Clare as Saint Clare of Assisi. On October 3 of that year Clare's remains were transferred to the newly completed basilica where they were buried beneath the high altar. In futher recognition of the saint, Pope Urban IV officially changed the name of the Order of Poor Ladies to the Order of Saint Clare in 1263.
Some 600 years later in 1872, Saint Clare's remains were transferred to a newly constructed shrine in the crypt of the Basilica of Saint Clare where they can still be seen today.
Pope Pius XII designated her as the patron saint of television in 1958, on the basis that when she was too ill to attend Mass, she had been miraculously able to see and hear it on the wall of her room.

Jesus Walks on the Water.

With faith in Him, we follow.

When we are in need, let us grasp His hand.

It is always there to grab onto ours.

“Have courage, it is I. Do not be afraid.”

Lord, You help me!

Today we celebrate the feast of a saint who lived in our own time: Edith Stein.

Stein was born in Breslau (Wrocław), in the German Empire's Prussian Province of Silesia, into an observant Jewish family.
At the University of Göttingen, she became a student of Edmund Husserl, whom she followed to the University of Freiburg as his assistant. In 1916, she received her doctorate of philosophy there with a dissertation under Husserl, "On The Problem of Empathy." She then became a member of the faculty in Freiburg. In the previous year she had worked with Martin Heidegger in editing Husserl's papers for publication, Heidegger being appointed similarly as a teaching assistant to Husserl at Freiburg in October 1916. She had her Dissertation in 1916 with Zum Problem der Einfühlung (About the Problem of Emphathy) and held a Ph.D.
While Stein had earlier contacts with Catholicism. It was her reading the autobiography of the mystic St. Teresa of Ávila on a holiday in Göttingen in 1921 that aided her conversion.
Baptized on January 1, 1922, she gave up her assistantship with Husserl to teach at a Dominican girls' school in Speyer from 1922 to 1932.
In 1932 she became a lecturer at the Institute for Pedagogy at Münster, but anti-Semitic legislation passed by the Nazi government forced her to resign the post in 1933. In a letter to Pope Pius XI, she denounced the Nazi regime and asked the Pope to openly denounce the regime "to put a stop to this abuse of Christ's name."
She entered the Discalced Carmelite monastery at Cologne in 1933 and took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
To avoid the growing Nazi threat, her order transferred Stein to the Carmelite monastery at Echt in the Netherlands. There she wrote Studie über Joannes a Cruce: Kreuzeswissenschaft ("The Science of the Cross: Studies on John of the Cross").
However, Stein was not safe in the Netherlands—the Dutch Bishops' Conference had a public statement read in all the churches of the country on July 20, 1942, condemning Nazi racism. In a retaliatory response on July 26, 1942, the Reichskommissar of the Netherlands ordered the arrest of all Jewish converts who had previously been spared. Stein and her sister Rosa, also a convert, were captured and shipped to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where they died in the gas chambers on August 9, 1942.

She was canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 11, 1998.

Today is The feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord

My First Day

Without delay, I dedicate my Blog to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Sts. Patrick, Christopher and John Vianney and my family.

Tonight as a read Evening Prayer while I sat on my porch, I allowed the activities of the day to flow through my mind.

Tuesdays is one of the days when our Parish opens its Caring and Sharing ministry. What a great group of committed women we have who pass out to the needy some food for the day. The food is brought in through a variety of sources mostly people who worship here with us.

Tuesdays is also one of the days when our parish opens it Free Medical Clinic for the poor, indigent, homeless and uninsured of the community. Here again what an inspiring group of people invlove themseles in this ministry.

I also spent some time today reading and studying some of the new prayer translations for the Mass. This is going to be a struggle I think but I certainly appreciate the work that is involved in making our worship more prayerful and uplifting. The translations I read today are only the beginning of many, many prayer translations coming to us so I know I must dedicate a great deal of time in continual reading and studying these new translations so that I can make them prayerful and my own.