Quote of the Day, Because Padre Pio knows what I need to hear.....

"Don't spend your energies on things that generate worry, anxiety and anguish. Only one thing is necessary: Lift up your spirit, and love God."
— St. Padre Pio

Quote of the Day: Tertullian, Circa AD 200

"The Law found more than it lost when Christ said, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven’ (Matthew 5:44-45). This most important commandment summarizes in a word the universal discipline of patience, since it does not allow us to do evil even to people who deserve it."
— Tertullian

St. Ignatius of Antioch, on Faith and Love

From his letter to the Ephesians:

None of these things is hid from you, if ye perfectly possess that faith and love towards Christ Jesus(10) which are the beginning and the end of life. For the beginning is faith, and the end is love.(11) Now these two. being inseparably connected together,(12) are of God, while all other things which are requisite for a holy life follow after them. No man [truly] making a profession of faith sinneth;(13) nor does he that possesses love hate any one. The tree is made manifest by its fruit;(15) so those that profess themselves to be Christians shall be recognised by their conduct. For there is not now a demand for mere profession,(16) but that a man be found continuing in the power of faith to the end.

Quote of the Day: Faith and Love

"Faith and love are like the blind man’s guides. They will lead you along a path unknown to you, to the place where God is hidden."
— St. John of the Cross

Quote of the Day, Benedict Edition

"Our first duty, therefore, precisely in order to heal this world, is to be holy, configured to God; in this way we emanate a healing and transforming power that also acts on others, on history. . . In this regard, it us useful to reflect that the Twelve Apostles were not perfect men, chosen for their moral and religious irreproachability. They were indeed believers, full of enthusiasm and zeal but at the same time marked by their human limitations, which were sometimes even serious. Therefore Jesus did not call them because they were already holy, complete, perfect, but so that they might become so, so that they might thereby also transform history, as it is for us, as it is for all Christians."

Quote of the Day: JP2 - Because I love this.

"Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know Himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves."
— Pope St. John Paul II

and one more quote today, because I NEEDED to hear this....

"We live in a fallen world. We must therefore work out our destiny under the conditions created by sin. Did we but realize this truth, we would accept each of life’s trying changes in the same spirit in which we accept the penance from the confessor. Were we truly convinced that our hope of pardon, and consequently our salvation, depends upon repentance, we would willingly undergo all the sufferings of life’s warfare."
— John A. Kane

The World We Live In

Last year, I wanted to take a six year old to meet a Disney Princess.  There are LOTS of Disney Princesses, in several different places, all that accommodate thousands of people per day.  And yet, even though I began six full months in advance, it took me months and months of daily checking to book a reservation for an hour long dinner costing hundreds of dollars.   Inside a park I'd already spent hundreds of dollars to get into.  All to see some random woman dressed up like a make-believe princess. 

This morning, I was given a reservation to stand in the presence of THE Apostle Peter, the actual bones of the man who stood in the presence of THE Christ, incarnation of the everlasting GOD OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE.  It took one email, and $30 for the two of us, to be one of only 250 people per day allowed to do such a thing.  UNBELIEVABLE.

I'm so excited to crawl under the Vatican into the ancient catacombs to see the burial place of the man who holds the keys to Heaven.   It still seems surreal that this whole thing is going to happen!!!





CONFIRMATION of the VISIT of the Necropolis under the Basilica of St. Peter.

{giubileo2016}

Aho Monica
The visit takes place beneath the Vatican basilica at the tomb of the Apostle Peter; the itinerary of the visit, besides offering cultural and historical information, is a pilgrimage to one of the holiest sites in Christendom.
The rules written under NOTICES must be respected, even if they are different from other places in the Vatican.

DAY OF THE VISIT
Protocol / Reference No. 77851 Guest Aho Monica
Visit Saturday, June 04, 2016
Receipt No. 34176

_______________________________________________________

hour 09:00 - Visitors / Visitors No. 2 - Language: English


WOOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!

A Moment

So, faith formation starts tomorrow, and I'm taking over the Kindergarten/1st grade combined class.  I stopped by the church to set up the closet classroom.  Luckily, the church was unlocked, so the kids and I barged inside, in the un-quiet way that we always do.    And then we STOPPED.

There, lying prostate on the floor, in front of the altar, deep in prayer adoring Our Lord in the form of a consecrated Eucharist, was Deacon Tom.  All by himself.  I shushed the kids and hurried them down the stairs before we could interrupt him further.

Such an intimate moment.  But this is why I LOVE St. Anne's. 

These people are for REAL.

There's no show of devotion.  It's not a performance.  It's not that we respect this space during "show time", when there's mass on Sunday, and then the rest of the time it's just a building.  It's SACRED, this house of God.  ALL THE TIME.  Because Christ is here, in a very special way, in this place.  Yes, He's everywhere.  But here.... He's here in a very physical, tangible way.  It's HIS house.  Holy.  And everyone treats it as such. 

I noticed that as I was being given a tour by last year's faith formation teacher.  We were walking back and forth in the sanctuary, getting from the classroom to the fellowship hall several times.  And EVERY TIME, every single time, she blessed herself with holy water and then genuflected in front of the tabernacle.  And we must've gone back and forth like 5 times.  I followed suit, but honestly only because she did.  I would've probably done it once, and figured that I'd done my job.  But she didn't.  It was automatic for her, but also reverent.  She acknowledged His presence continually, because He was there.  And it's His house.

This is new to me, being surrounded by people who really KNOW what they're doing and why.  Who really SEE what actually happens, not just on a physical level, but a spiritual one as well.  Surrounded by people of such deep faith.  I've been to many churches filled with good people.  People of faith, who love God.  I've never been surrounded by so many HOLY people.  People who recognize the sacred.  It's a whole different thing, this feeling of sacredness.    Reverence.  We don't see that much in today's society.  We really don't.  And I'm still getting used to it, because it's palpable in every square inch of this church.

Such a small parish, and yet two of it's young men are looking into the Priesthood.  One, at 18 years old, is applying for seminary right now.  Given the shortage of priests, the fact that two are from THIS place is rather astounding.  But the very first time I was there, I knew that kid was going to be a priest.  Just watching him worship, even though nothing he did was for show.  I could tell because of his REVERENCE during mass.  How he never took his eyes off the alter.  He never fidgeted, never looked around at the people.  People aren't why he's there. Just totally living every single moment of the mass, soaking up it's holiness, with every inch of him.  You can see it outwardly.

 There was a young college student a few years back that I remembered celebrating Mass like that, too, and I told Rob at the time "that kid is going to become a priest".  Sure enough... six years later, he's in seminary.  They nearly glow, these young men being called.  It radiates from them outwardly, unmistakably. 

It makes me think that we might not be in the presence of merely good people, which we are.  But that we might honestly be surrounded by SAINTS, and that's something on a whole different level.  And crazy to think about.