And of course for his wife, the wonderful Amy Welborn, and their family.
- Requiem æternam dona ei, Domine,
- et lux perpetua luceat ei.
POD
Archived Posts from this Category
February 3, 2009
November 2, 2008
Our diocesan vocations director, Fr. Mark Catalana, gave this homily on Respect Life Sunday. I just received it via email from a friend this past week…
Holy Family 2008
Today is Respect Life Sunday. I have to tell you, I find this Sunday exceedingly frustrating. You know how much I love being one of your priests at Holy Family. Yet in the past when I’ve spoken about protecting human life I know that some of you have been offended. Believe me: I take no pleasure in that. Some of my brother priests have even said to me, “Why bother? It’s not going to change anything.” If I were to believe that the Gospel cannot transform the world than I would have to pack up my bags and do something else with my life. No, I have been entrusted with the sacred ministry of preaching the Truth of Jesus Christ as His Church interprets it, not to lead you astray by my silence or indifference.
40 or 50 years ago we didn’t need a Pro-Life Sunday. No one needed to be reminded that we have to defend life from the moment of conception to life’s natural end. It’s impossible for me to believe that human morality has advanced beyond my parent’s and grandparent’s morality! All previous generations saw issues like abortion, euthanasia, and the possibility of human cloning or experimentations on human embryos as attacks on human dignity and as the moral evils they are. They avoided them at all costs even if it meant personal disadvantage.
To be frank, in my opinion what has happened is that as a nation we have become more callous and self-centered. It has happened so slowly that few have understood what is happening to us. Kind of like the frog sitting in warm water as the heat is gradually increased. And few want to hear the Truth of the Gospel of Life or reflect on the magnitude of these evils: 50 million abortions in the last 35 years in our country—hundreds of millions in our world—and a people unable or unwilling to halt the advancing tide as life is discarded or bought and sold for a pittance.
Now you may have noticed that there’s an election approaching. I will not tell you how to vote or for whom to vote. I will say that a Christian has to bring his or her faith everywhere with them—even into the voting booth. However, these life issues are not, as one Catholic politician recently claimed, articles of faith that cannot be imposed on non-believers. The fact that life begins at conception is not an article of faith as he claimed but a biological fact.
Many like to preclude faith from any ethical discussion facing our nation. This is, of course, absurd and clearly not the thinking of individuals like Washington, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson or Madison. If you read their writings, you know they meant the First Amendment to protect religion and not to suppress it.
I am not endorsing any political candidate or party this morning or any other morning. The Church cannot and must not be aligned with any one political party. Long after the Democratic party, the Republican party, and every other party has been disbanded the Church will still stand. What I am asking is that you reflect on these matters in your own heart. Christians must stand to protect life. This is not a negotiable thing or simply one issue among others. It is the defining issue of our day because it affects so profoundly our common morality and leads to violence against all the other stages of life.
I leave you with God’s words to the People of Israel as found in the Book of Deuteronomy: “I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live.”
June 3, 2008
Mass of St. Josemaría in the San Francisco Bay Area
Posted by Margaret under Day to Day, PODLeave a Comment
You and your family are invited to
a Mass celebrating the feast of
St. Josemaría Escrivá,
Founder of Opus Dei
Thursday, June 26, 2008, at 7:00 p.m.
St. Francis of Assisi Church
860 Oak Grove Rd., Concord, CA 94518-3461
Principal Celebrant
Most Rev. Allen H. Vigneron
Bishop of Oakland
For more information about St. Josemaría, go to www.opusdei.org
Sacrament of Reconciliation available starting at 6:30 p.m.
June 2, 2008
My oldest daughter has been attending for years, loves it, and is going back this year as a junior counselor. The camp has become so popular that the organizers added a second session this year, which means spaces are still available! It strikes a terrific balance between POD stuff for the girls (Mass, Rosary, catechism, etc.) and good, old-fashioned camp fun. Check it out!
May 16, 2008
Sadly, I will be out of state for this conference– I would dearly love to attend. Speakers include Archbishop Burke, Janet Smith, Ray Dennehy… Wow. Kudos to Bishop Vigneron of Oakland for sponsoring it!
May 1, 2008
There is a lengthy, detailed and pretty darned civil conversation on this topic running over at Fr. Z’s place…
April 17, 2008
Awesomely amazing video about the Catholic Church.
Click here, scroll down, and click on “Epic.”
If you’re so inclined, give, so gems like this can air on television.
HT: Dale Price
April 3, 2008
Late last night, I received a dreadful phone call from the hospital. A dear friend’s four-year-old son was in a sedated coma following a freak accident in the back yard. My husband and I just started praying like mad, with many tears mixed in, and got the word out to family and friends to pray for this poor little fellow. We fell asleep fully expecting that he would not make it through the night, or if he did survive, to be badly brain-damaged.
This morning, he woke up right as rain. Recognized his folks, asked for his blankie. Docs say they find no evidence of any damage. It boggles the mind.
God is so good. This was such a miracle. It really drove home to me once again how precious every day, and every person in our day is. Sometimes I bemoan how quickly the children are growing up, and far too often, how slowly, sloooowly they are growing up and learning to behave. Events like this are a knock on the head from God to just stop and give thanks to Him, and savor the beauty of the moment.
February 5, 2008
St. Josemaria on the start of Lent:
We are at the beginning of Lent: a time of penance, purification and conversion. It is not an easy program, but then Christianity is not an easy way of life. It is not enough just to be in the Church, letting the years roll by. In our life, in the life of Christians, our first conversion — that unique moment which each of us remembers, when we clearly understood everything the Lord was asking of us — is certainly very significant. But the later conversions are even more important, and they are increasingly demanding. To facilitate the work of grace in these conversions, we need to keep our soul young; we have to call upon our Lord, know how to listen to him and, having found out what has gone wrong, know how to ask his pardon.
Read the rest here.
If you are not yet familiar with the wealth of spiritual writings from this 20th century saint, Lent is a great time to dive in. The Way is regarded by many as a modern-day spiritual classic. I find it especially helpful to pick a topic for my prayer and work my way from the index through the various points. For instance, conversion…
January 7, 2008
An attempt to find the text of the Rite of Baptism online led me to St. Anthony of Padua, in New Bedford, MA. What a terrific parish website! Then I discovered the pastor is Fr. Roger Landry, author of the excellent Answering Scandal with Personal Holiness
from a few years back.
Tolle et lege.
