Pope Francis

What a wonderful surprise! Such a humble and holy man. I look forward to seeing where this shepherd will lead.

E-book on Benedict XVI

The Vatican has put out an awesome e-book with pictures and everything on the pope emeritus, Bendict XVI. Check it out here.

I Feel So Popeless

It didn't seem quite so real as today that Benedict is no longer the Pope. I really liked Benedict. He was so cute in his red hat and shoes.

Most of all I liked that he oozed humility and kindness. He was a true servant of God.

I pray that the next Pope will be as strong and orthodox as Benedict with his great humility and kindness. But, the next Pope needs to be strong in body as well. Someone who can lead the Church through the rough times that are ahead. Someone who people will follow. Someone who will make the Church stronger.

Busy Busy

This year Lent snuck up on me. I wasn't prepared when Ash Wednesday hit. Okay, I'm still not prepared, but I'm just going with it. This year, I'm leaving Lent up to God. And he's already decided what I'll be giving up for Lent...free time.

I'd prefer to give up something easy, like giving up Facebook or ice cream. But, giving up something easy that doesn't cause sacrifice isn't really giving it up. It's just postponing something that you aren't attached to.

Free time, for me is something that I am greatly attached to. I don't like being scheduled every minute of every day doing stuff for someone else. I like having time to be selfish and self-indulgent. I, of course, never saw it as selfish or self-indulgent behavior. But, this Lent, it's beginning to sink in what real sacrifice is.

Blessed Theresa of Calcutta, pray for me so that I can do God's bidding and work tirelessly as you did for the poor. 

I Can't Believe It

Saint Anthony has come through. My thumb drive has been found. It just all of a sudden appeared a few minutes ago in the drawer where I normally put it. I swear it was not there previously, I completely emptied that draw several times looking for it. It was not there. Thank you, St. Anthony!

Now I'm going to back this baby up so that if it gets lost again I don't lose everything.

Ohhh No You Didn't

There is a disturbing video I saw yesterday put out by WOC. After seeing the video, WOC could very well stand for Women On Crack, because the video is that bad. But, no WOC stands for Women's Ordination Conference. Not much difference between the two, I know.

Normally, I just pray for these misguided souls. After all they are like rats running in place. Women will never be ordained as Deacons or Priests. If they want to wear themselves out fighting a losing battle and risk losing their soul, there is not much I can do to stop them.

What I take offense to is not their laughable "promo" video, which does more to make fun of their cause than to promote it, but to their blasphemy of Saint Therese to promote their cause. They claim that she wanted to be a priest and that if she were alive, would support their efforts. They apparently haven't been paying attention to St. Therese at all.

While Saint Therese did say in her biography, Story of A Soul, that she aspired to be a priest, she went further than that. She wanted to be a Priest, a Martyr, a Prophet, a Missionary, a Doctor of the Church, a Saint. She wanted to be all things for God because she loved Him above all things.

To be Thy Spouse, O my Jesus, to be a daughter of Carmel, and by my union with Thee to be the mother of souls, should not all this content me? And yet other vocations make themselves felt—I feel called to the Priesthood and to the Apostolate—I would be a Martyr, a Doctor of the Church. I should like to accomplish the most heroic deeds—the spirit of the Crusader burns within me, and I long to die on the field of battle in defence of Holy Church. ~ Story of A Soul, Chapter 11

She goes on to talk of how she would glorify each position if it was hers. And states that if she had been offered the priesthood, out of humility she would decline it as St. Francis of Assisi did.

She longed to do big things for God! But, she understood that God had not given her the means or the gifts to do such big things. He had given her the gifts to do little things for him. She was called to be obedient and humble of heart.

To such folly as this what answer wilt Thou make? Is there on the face of this earth a soul more feeble than mine? And yet, precisely because I am feeble, it has delighted Thee to accede to my least and most child-like desires, and to-day it is Thy good pleasure to realise those other desires, more vast than the Universe. These aspirations becoming a true martyrdom, I opened, one day, the Epistles of St. Paul to seek relief in my sufferings. My eyes fell on the 12th and 13th chapters of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. I read that all cannot become Apostles, Prophets, and Doctors; that the Church is composed of different members; that the eye cannot also be the hand. The answer was clear, but it did not fulfill my desires, or give to me the peace I sought. “Then descending into the depths of my nothingness, I was so lifted up that I reached my aim.”  ~Story of a Soul, Chapter 11

Saint Therese understood that everyone has a different role to play in the Church. If God created you to be a Priest, or Martyr, or Doctor of the Church, he certainly would have given you the gifts to be such.

The WOC is conveniently choosing to ignore this incite by Saint Therese. They are ignoring her call to obedience to the Church and its leaders, even if they think they may be wrong. They are ignoring her call to humility and charity and her call to love God above all else.

They are using the name of a beautiful saint and taking what she said out of context to push their own selfish desires. Their love is only for themselves and not for God. For if it was, they would follow Therese's lead and abandon those silly ideas.

The Internet is a Wonderful Thing

As I posted previously, we are studying the section on the Holy Spirit from the Catechism as part of formation. There are sections that I've read over, looked at other sources and am still stuck on. And I'm not the type of person to let it go if I don't understand something. I will keep searching until I not only get an answer, but I also understand it.

Today I finally understand it, with the help of CatholicCity.com and their Catechism Simplified. After finding that site, it dawned on me that in order to understand some of the sections you need to read the references in the footnotes, which I was not doing. Catechism Simplified uses those footnotes to help explain what the Catechism is saying.

Okay, I'm a little slow sometimes. I would be much farther along if I had just read the footnotes. But, I wouldn't have discovered a bunch of great blogs and websites if I had gone the easy route. Someday I will add a page to this site with all of my absolutely most favorite websites and blogs.

For anyone like me that has long lists of blogs that they check out, you need Google Reader. It compiles all of the new postings into one screen where you can weed through them. You can also set up folders and categorize your sites, star your favorite posts and mark posts for later reading. It is a huge time saver and I don't miss the posts from people who don't blog on a regular basis (like me).

Anyways...back to my Catechism reading.