Giving Thanks

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love is everlasting.

Thanksgiving is a Thursday in November that we set aside for giving thanks... 

Query: Why should we limit ourselves to one day of "thanks giving"?  Shouldn't every day be a day of giving thanks to God for His many gifts?

Even our crosses are gifts from God- challenges sent to make us stronger, to help us grow in faith... to help us die to self...

Yes- Thanksgiving day should be every day.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love is everlasting.

Rejoice!

This month, the daily prayer book that I started using a few months back, Give Us This Day, added Night Prayer to the prayer book, in addition to the Morning and Evening prayers. 

As part of the night prayers, which remain the same for the entire month, there is a short reading from St. Paul's letter to the Philippians that made an impression.  (I guess that is bound to happen after reading the same passage night in and night out for 22 days!).

Anyway, I think that St. Paul's message to the Philippians in this particular passage is quite appropriate for our crazy world today, which can so often fill us with anxiety.  Here it is, Philippians 4:4-7:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! . . . The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

AMEN! May that peace of which St. Paul speaks be with each and everyone of us during these times!

Silence

Yesterday, a friend of mine on the Mother of God Forum posted a quote about the importance of silence.  Her quote inspired me to do a little internet searching of my own for some additional Catholic quotes about silence.

Not surprisingly, I found a number of inspiring quotes on the subject, but two stood out immediately and I would like to post them below.  The first is from Archbishop Charles Chaput, formerly of the Diocese of Denver and now Archbishop of the Diocese of Philadelphia.  I do not know a lot about Archbishop Chaput, but I do know that he is a strong, conservative voice in the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops.  His quote regarding silence is as follows:

We need silence, more than anything. If people can create some time every day — even just an hour — when they eliminate all the distracting noise of American life, their spirit will naturally begin to grow. Daily life in the United States is so filled with appetites and tensions stimulated by the mass media that turning the media off almost automatically results in deeper and clearer thinking. And that interior quiet can very easily lead us to God.

The next quote I found is a real gem that is attributed to Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, that wonderful saint of our times.  Her thought regarding silence is:

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.

As we get ready for the Triduum, my prayer is that all of us may find some time for silence as we ponder Our Lord's great sacrifice.

Praise God!

St. Joseph

Happy Feast of Saint Joseph, foster father of Jesus and devoted husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary!!

Saint Joseph has always been one of my favorite saints, even more so now that I am a father too. I strive daily to be a husband and father on par with him, and ask his assistance often in that regard.

St. Joseph... Pray for us!

Praise God!

Give Us This Day: The Verdict

Well, it is now 9:30 PM EST on Wednesday, February 29, 2012, which means that I have completed my month with Give Us This Day.  I was pretty good about using all of the resources that are contained in the book (the reflections, songs, prayers, etc...) and I have to say that I really enjoyed having this resource around. 

I found that setting aside time for the morning and evening prayer contained in the book was quite rewarding.  I also enjoyed having the updated translations for the prayers and prefaces at Mass.  Someday, I plan to take on the Liturgy of the Hours, so I think that a prayer resource like Give Us This Day may be a good stepping stone... 

So, I give Give Us This Day two thumbs up!  I sent in my subscription for one year and look forward to hopefully reaping the benefits!

Praise God!!

St. Luke's Mission of Mercy

For those of you who are not familiar with Buffalo, New York, the east side of the city can be a rough place.  The east side has been hit hard by change and, where once stood many vibrant ethnic neighborhoods, now stands a bleak series of beaten down and boarded up homes.  There are good people on Buffalo's east side, to be sure, but even a quick drive through the neighborhood makes it clear that times are tough.

Located in the heart of that tough neighborhood is a small Roman Catholic mission called St. Luke's Mission of Mercy.  The mission is based at the former St. Luke's parish/school complex on Walden Avenue.  It was founded in 1994 by Norm Paolini and Amy Betros, two local Catholics that had the courage to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit and (after purchasing the abandoned St. Luke's premises) opened their doors to the people that society had all but forgotten.  Their primary mission was (and still is) quite simple: to perform the corporal works of mercy of the Church (i.e., feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc...) in a Christ-centered environment.

I was down at the mission tonight as a guest of Michael Taheri, a local attorney who now dedicates most of his time to volunteer work at the mission.  The mission treated me, and a number of other guests, including the President of Canisius College, to Mass in the stunning (and currently being restored) St. Luke's church, and then dinner in the mission's dining hall.  After dinner, they put on a brief presentation about their latest venture- a school called Our Lady of Hope Home School, which offers loving, Christ-centered instruction to some of Buffalo's neediest children- and then gave us a tour of the facilities.  Simply put, it was an eye-opening experience.  St. Luke's is the kind of place where love and the presence of Christ are palpable- the kind of place that we need more of in our too often selfish and secular world.

More information about St. Luke's Mission of Mercy and the remarkable work being accomplished there is available on their website: http://www.stlukesmissionofmercy.org/.

For any of you reading this blog in the Buffalo area, I highly encourage you to get down to the mission and check it out for yourself- you will not be disappointed.  For those of you out of the area, please remember the mission in your prayers.

Praise God!!

Give Us This Day

I am starting a new experiment today.  I picked up a free sample of a new monthly Catholic daily prayer publication, Our Daily Bread, and have decided to use it for a month and see if I like it.  Our Daily Bread is a product of Liturgical Press in Collegeville, MN.  Based upon some early reviews that I found online (see http://datinggod.org/tag/give-us-this-day/ and http://www.praytellblog.com/index.php/2011/01/28/give-us-this-day-new-from-liturgical-press/), it appears that it is well-received thus far.

At first glance, Our Daily Bread is strikingly similar to Magnificat, a more well-known Catholic daily prayer publication.  I had a subscription to Magnificat a few years ago, and generally enjoyed using it, but after they failed to timely process my renewal, leaving me "high and dry" for a couple of weeks at daily Mass, I decided to invest in a two volume Weekday Lectionary set from St. Joseph's Press.  Since then, I have not seen a need for a daily prayer publication (since my primary use was for the Mass readings).  Truthfully, I found that I did not miss the Magnificat much at all.

However, after the new translation of the Roman Missal took effect last November, my Lectionaries became somewhat out of date.  Although the daily readings remain the same, the prayers in my two Lectionaries are based on the old translation.   So, I frequently find myself wishing that I had copies of the newly translated prayers, particularly the opening and closing prayers for daily Mass, as well the prayers over the gifts.

Thus, when I saw free samples of the February 2012 edition of Our Daily Bread at a local Parish, I decided to grab one and give it a shot.  I will let anyone who cares to check this blog know how my little "ex-prayer-iment" turns out.  (Sorry, couldn't help myself!).

Oh, and, for what it's worth, I thought today's materials were excellent!

Happy Feast of St. Bridgid!

Praise God!

Third Annual "Pick-A-Saint"

Happy New Year!

My family and I just finished our New Year's tradition of picking a companion Saint for the year from a jar filled with the names of various Saints and Blesseds.

This year, we again ended up with a diverse group of patrons to accompany us throughout the year.  The results:

1.  St. Rose of Lima
2.  Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
3.  Blessed Pope John XXIII
4.  The Holy Souls in Purgatory.

Praise God!!