Terminology - Adoption

Adoption - In Baptism, the Holy Spirit transforms us into children of the Father, thereby making us his adopted sons and daughters in the likeness of his eternal Son (see Eph 1:3-6).  In this way, the faithful are made "partakers in the divine nature (cf. 2 Pt 1:4) by uniting them in a living union with the only Son, the Savior" (Cathechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], no. 1129).  In the sacraments, we become the sons and daughters of God by adoption through Christ Jesus.

I'ts not easy to volunteer

I guess it is a sign of our times and the world we currently live in. 

I am currently unemployed, therefore I decided I should volunteer.  I should volunteer anyway, employed or not.  Anyway, so I call a program today to volunteer.  I can't come in tomorrow to volunteer, I have to wait for a booklet and application to arrive in the mail.  After I fill it all out they have to conduct a background check before I can be approved to volunteer. 

I actually understand why, although I believe it is sad that a background check is needed for someone to volunteer.

Saint Jude

St. Jude seeps to be one of the most well known saints at least in the United States by Catholic and non-Catholics.  Most all of us know or have heard about St. Jude's Hospital.  I could easily scrap together information about St. Jude on my own, although I decided to use information I found at AmericanCatholic.org they have a great section on Saint of the Day, they also have a great Ap for Saint of the Day.  I really hope they don't mind my excellent copy and paste skills. 

So unless you are an excellent scholar of Saints, I hope you will read the following and learn all that you knew and might not have known about St. Jude. 

St Jude (Simon and Jude)

Jude is so named by Luke and Acts. Matthew and Mark call him Thaddeus. He is not mentioned elsewhere in the Gospels, except, of course, where all the apostles are referred to. Scholars hold that he is not the author of the Letter of Jude. Actually, Jude had the same name as Judas Iscariot. Evidently because of the disgrace of that name, it was shortened to "Jude" in English.

Simon is mentioned on all four lists of the apostles. On two of them he is called "the Zealot." The Zealots were a Jewish sect that represented an extreme of Jewish nationalism. For them, the messianic promise of the Old Testament meant that the Jews were to be a free and independent nation. God alone was their king, and any payment of taxes to the Romans—the very domination of the Romans—was a blasphemy against God. No doubt some of the Zealots were the spiritual heirs of the Maccabees, carrying on their ideals of religion and independence. But many were the counterparts of modern terrorists. They raided and killed, attacking both foreigners and "collaborating" Jews. They were chiefly responsible for the rebellion against Rome which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

Comment:

As in the case of all the apostles except for Peter, James and John, we are faced with men who are really unknown, and we are struck by the fact that their holiness is simply taken to be a gift of Christ. He chose some unlikely people: a former Zealot, a former (crooked) tax collector, an impetuous fisherman, two "sons of thunder" and a man named Judas Iscariot. It is a reminder that we cannot receive too often. Holiness does not depend on human merit, culture, personality, effort or achievement. It is entirely God's creation and gift. God needs no Zealots to bring about the kingdom by force. Jude, like all the saints, is the saint of the impossible: only God can create his divine life in human beings. And God wills to do so, for all of us.

Quote:

"Just as Christ was sent by the Father, so also he sent the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit. This he did so that, by preaching the gospel to every creature (cf. Mark 16:15), they might proclaim that the Son of God, by his death and resurrection, had freed us from the power of Satan (cf. Acts 26:18) and from death, and brought us into the kingdom of his Father" (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy).

Patron Saint of:

Desperate causes

Spiritual Direction

Back a bit ago I decided that I needed to seek a Spiritual Director.  I was going to get on it the following week, although let a week or two pass before picking up the phone.

So, how does one find a Spiritual Director?

Step 1, I heard of a website/blog Roman Catholic Spiritual Direction, I went there and browsed around.  I can't remember if I read it on there or heard it on the Catholic radio station I listen to, although they said the first step was to call your parish and ask if they could refer you to a religious community that provided spiritual direction.

That was probably my block.  I get jitters whenever I have to call my parish.  I never know who to ask for and for some reason I am always worried about bothering someone.  Well today I finally got over myself and picked up the phone.

Step 2, call your local parish.  In my instance I don't think a real person ever picks up the phone.  I listened to the whole message and hung up.  I really had no idea who any of the people in the directory were.  For some reason I had kind of decided to leave a message for a Deacon, I don't know why.  Well they didn't list an extension for a Deacon thus the reason I hung up.  I thought for a minute and then decided to just pick one of the Priest.  So I call back and pick the Priest listed after the Monsignor.  Thankfully he didn't answer his phone so I left a message with what I was looking for.  Honestly, why do I feel this is so hard?

Step 3, Priest calls you back with appropriate information :-).  Guess what we have a local Spiritual Direction office in Denver, he provides me all the information.

Step 4, without delay call the local Spiritual Direction office.  I think I was hoping to leave another message.  Well, they had a LIVE person that answered their phone and when I spilled out my request for a spiritual director I was transferred to another live person.  Apparently these people don't understand that I get the jitters when talking to "church" people.  By the Grace of God, I made it through the conversation and I have a Non-Committal appointment for next week!  How this goes is I meet with the priest for this Non-Committal appointment.  After the appointment I go away to think and pray about what we discuss and then I contact him a week later if I wish to proceed.  Or something like that.

So stay tuned for the rest of the process.

An Airport Encounter

My second favorite Archbishop (I only know 2 of them and neither personally), Timothy Dolan published the following on his blog and I would like to share it with everyone.

An Airport Encounter

I am saddened that our priests are viewed in this manner.  I am saddened that the horrible and unacceptable actions of a few diminish the great works of many.  I pray for all of our Priest.

Reverance

I have seen a lot of discussion about reverence in the sense of what or who is more reverent. 
Some examples:

• Is receiving the Holy Eucharist on the tongue more reverent than receiving in the hand?
• Is letting the Holy Eucharist dissolve in ones mouth more reverent than chewing? 
• Is genuflecting more reverent than bowing?
• Is singing during mass more reverent than humming?

I could go on.  I have bought in to some of these arguments myself.  I sit back now and know that all of these are approved by the Church either way.  None of them are disrespectful.  While we should be as reverent as we can be, I am not a proponent of playing the game who is the most reverent.  We are all called to be Christ like, although for me to be more like Christ might not look the same as how you are called to be more like Christ.

One note:  Every priest I have observed chews the Holy Eucharist.  I don't know where or how to find it although I heard somewhere that when Jesus said "Eat this in remembrance of me" the translation of eat is chew.  If you are chewing or dissolving I am just grateful that you are receiving the Most Holy Eucharist!

Praying

I sat down this morning thinking about what I could write about prayer.  Prayer is so unique and individual to all of us.  I was asked recently if I pray daily.  I do.  Although, the more I thought of it I realize how I need to improve my prayer life.  At this point in time I would say that the majority of my prayer life is short simple prayers.  "God please give me patience."  "St. Christopher watch over us."  "Thank you God."  etc.  I am not as good at sitting down and meditating or saying a prayer more than 10 words unless we are at mass.  I am working on it.  Currently I am saying a Our Lady Novena.

I have been heard many times throughout my life that I need to extend my prayer life.  And I agree.  My struggle is, sometimes I don't know how to pray.  I know that there is really not a good vs. bad way to pray, we all need to adapt what is best for us.  It is just difficult for me to read a prayer (other than mass prayers) that was written by someone else.  Then when I try to sit down and pray in my own words I feel like I am making things up as I go (which I am).  I never thought I was unhappy with my prayer life.  I never really thought about it.  I do sit back now and know that I deserve more of a prayer life. 

So how do you pray?
What do you pray?
Where do you pray?
When do you pray?
Why do you pray?