Thursday, January 31, 2008

New Blogging Schedule...


For the convenience of my regular readers, I am setting up a new schedule for when I will be regularly blogging so that you know when to check in for updates! Because I need some extra time in other activities at this time, new posts will be published only on Sundays and sometimes on Saturdays. Thanks for your understanding!

Saturday, January 26, 2008





Altar Servers


You know you're an 'old-time' reader of this blog if you remember me posting about my 'new' apsotlate for heading up meetings for the Altar Servers. Wow. Well, those meetings were just short of a complete failure. We had an attendance of about 6 kids at most of them (what, like 2 meetings?) and none of the Altar Servers that really needed to come ever came! This was quite discouraging, but recently some new progress seems to be coming forward. The liturgist at my parish is helping me to head up a new program that I've come up with that will require every server to go through. This program will have different levels (beginner, intermediate etc..) that they must pass until they are to a certain level. They are able to attain another optional level if they wish which will prove that they are good leaders. If you would like a copy of what I've come up with, email me and I'll send it to you via email. A lot of it is based off of from this webpage. Thanks Fr. Terry!

We are having a meeting soon and will implement this program. Pray that it will succeed if God wills it, and also that I will be able to find good leaders to take over for me when I leave home in 5 months or so. Below are some things that we will probably go over as well:


Hold your hands right!!!




NO Bad Posture!


No Inappropriate Shoes...

Poll Results...

This [last] Christmas you spent how much for gifts?

$1,000 or more: 1 (6%)

$500-$1,000:
1 (6%)


$100-$500:
9 (60%)


Less than $100:
2 (13%)


Nothing:
2 (13%)

Go ahead and try the new poll!

Prayer Campaign...
Carolina Cannonball of The Crescat recently informed me that her dad's patron saint is St. Dominic Savio! She has requested that we pray for his conversion to come back to the Church. I don't know what his legal name is, but let's just pray for Dominic! I think many of us know of people close to us that are not Catholic and that may not be living any kind of spiritual life at all. Please join me in a campaign to pray for these souls who have fallen away from Christ or who have not found Him in the fullness of Truth yet! Below I am going to list some names of people that I would ask you pray for. If you would like add your own names in the combox and I will add them to the list soon! Remember to offer up these souls at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. If we all do that, can you imagine all the grace that will be available to these souls? Well, what are you waiting for? Oremus!
St. Dominic Savio~~~Ora pro Dominic!
St. Elizabeth~~~Ora pro Erin!
Christus Rex~~~Miserere nobis (Amara)!
St. Nicholas~~~Ora pro Arthur!
Awards....



Kaila of Ego me bene habeo has kindly awarded me two awards!!!



Spirit of Love Award...


"Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor. Do not grow slack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the holy ones, exercise hospitality. Bless those who persecute [you], bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Have the same regard for one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly; do not be wise in your own estimation. Do not repay anyone evil for evil; be concerned for what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, on your part, live at peace with all. ... Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good." (Romans 12:9-18, 21)
How about 3 people:
#1. Kaila of Ego me bene habeo (you certainly deserve this the most!)
#3. Sister Mary Martha of Ask Sister Mary Martha


Excellent Award

This is a great graphic! I would love to know who disigned it!

The rules: By accepting this Excellent Blog Award, you have to award it to 10 more people whose blogs you find Excellent Award worthy. You can give it to as many people as you want but please award at least 10. Thank you out there for having such great blogs and being such great friends! You deserve this! Feel free to award people who have already been awarded…

And the winners are...

#1. A Catholic Mom in Hawaii (who I see was already warded , but she really deserves it!)

#2. Mysterium Fidei (Could it be this blog is really becoming active again?)

#3. Catholic Homeschooled Teens

#4. Mount Carmel Catholic Bloggers

#5. A Catholic Notebook

#6. Ask Sister Mary Martha

#7. One Came Back

#8. The Curt Jester

#9. Jimmy Akin

#10 Ego me bene habeo (Yes! Right back at you!)

Thursday, January 24, 2008


Diary of St Faustina



I have recently been reading the diary of St. Faustina and it has a lot of good stuff in it! Some of it is hard to relate to for me at least, as it is quite mystical. However I've been taking notes of pages that are good to share with you. Here is an excellent excerpt on confession...


"And again, I would like to say three words to the soul that is determined to strive for sanctity and to derive fruit; that is to say, benefit from confession.



First--- complete sincerity and openness. Even the holiest and wisest confessor cannot forcibly pour into the soul what he desires if it is not sincere and open. An insincere, secretive soul risks great dangers in the spiritual life, and even the Lord Jesus Himself does not give Himself to such a soul on a higher level, because He knows it would derive no benefit from these special graces.


Second word--- humility. A soul does not benefit as it should from the sacrament of confession if it is not humble. Pride keeps it in darkness. The soul neither knows how, nor is it willing, to probe with precision the depths of its own misery. It puts on a mask and avoids everything that might bring it recovery.


Third word--- obedience. A disobedient soul will win no victory, even if the Lord Jesus Himself, in the person, were to hear its confession. The most experienced confessor will be of no help whatsoever to such a soul. The disobedient soul exposes itself to great misfortunes; it will make no progress toward perfection, nor will it succeed in the spiritual life. God lavishes His graces most generously upon the soul, but it must be an obedient soul."
(From the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska pg. 63 & 64)



Want a copy of the book? Buy it here...

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The Biggest Decision of my Life...



I just wanted to drop by real quickly and say a big "thank you" to everyone who gave their prayers for me during the past couple of days (especially Kaila, Cy and Soutenus)!

My decision is (God Willing) to enter the Archdiocese of Denver. I would love have any prayers that you could offer as I continue to apply and will begin to live the life of a seminarian before too long. Of course my prayers are with you all as well! God Bless!

Monday, January 21, 2008

Prayer Request...
This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to Denver and meet with Archbishop Chaput! I have recently been involved with applying for Denver and this was the next step to take. I talked to him about my desire to serve the people of the diocese of Pueblo but yet still have a good formation. He told me some stuff I have never considered before, and I need to make a decision very soon as to what diocese I will be applying for. Please pray for me as I have never made such a big decision in my life! Depending which diocese I go for will shape many things in my future. I will probably post tomorrow which diocese I have picked. Again, please keep me in your prayers! Thank you so much!

Friday, January 18, 2008

WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY


VATICAN CITY, 15 JAN 2008 (VIS) - The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, traditionally celebrated every year from January 18 to 25, begins on Friday.

The theme chosen for this year's initiative, taken from the First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians, is: "Pray without ceasing". The texts for reflection and prayer have been prepared by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches.

Each day of the Week will have a different theme:

18 January: Pray always. "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5, 17).

19 January: Pray always, trusting God alone. "Give thanks in all circumstances" (1 Thessalonians 5, 18).

20 January: Pray without ceasing for the conversion of hearts. "Admonish the idlers, encourage the faint-hearted" (1 Thessalonians 5, 14).

21 January: Pray always for justice. "See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all" (1 Thessalonians 5, 15).

22 January: Pray constantly with a patient heart. "Be patient with all of them" (1 Thessalonians 5, 14).

23 January: Pray always for grace to work with God. "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5, 16).

24 January: Pray for what we need. "... help the weak" (1 Thessalonians 5, 14).

25 January: Pray always that they all may be one. "Be at peace" (1 Thessalonians 5, 13b)

Although the traditional period for celebrating this week of prayer is in the month of January, in the southern hemisphere Churches sometimes seek other periods such as, for example, around the time of Pentecost, which is also a symbolically significant date for the unity of the Church, and was suggested by the Faith and Order movement in 1926.

In the basilica of St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls at 5.30 p.m. on Friday, 25 January, Feast of the Conversion of the Apostle Paul, Benedict XVI will preside at the celebration of Vespers to mark the close of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
.../PRAYER WEEK CHRISTIAN UNITY/... VIS 080115 (350)

Thursday, January 17, 2008

I'm sure no one visits this blog anymore but...
A New Year's resolution is coming---to blog regularly... Pray it comes soon!!!
(sorry everyone!! I'll be back into everything soon!)

Sunday, January 06, 2008


St. Dominic Savio; Patron of The Catholic Warrior 2008

You may have noticed in the sidebar the blog's new patron for 2008, St. Dominic Savio. Now, this is not the St. Dominic that most people have heard of, the man who established the Dominicans and the rosary among other things. Instead, this is a saint who lived in the mid-nineteenth century and died at only 15 years old from sickness. He had a motto in life, “Death rather than sin!”. This is so blatantly different than our culture which screams that everyone has a right to sin! If we belong to God, then we allow Him to guide our "rights", our free-will. Sin is real, and unless we can overcome our sin we can't live our life with God, in Heaven, or even right now. No one is perfect, but we must strive towards perfection everyday and to live our lives in a radical relationship with Jesus Christ! As the Holy Scriptures tell us: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)


The below article is taken from Catholic Online


Patron of the Falsly Accused

b. 1842 d. 1857
St. Dominic Savio was born in Italy in 1842. One day when he was just four, he disappeared and his good mother went looking for him. She found the little fellow in a corner praying with his hands joined and his head bowed. He already knew all his prayers by heart! At five, he was an altar boy. When he was seven, he received his First Holy Communion. On that solemn day, he chose a motto: "Death, but not sin!" and he kept it always.
"A teenager such as Dominic, who bravely struggled to keep his innocence from Baptism to the end of his life, is really a saint," said Pope St. Pius X.
Yes, Dominic was an ordinary boy with an extraordinary love for God.
At the age of twelve, Dominic entered the school run by St. John Bosco. Don Bosco examined him first and at the end of the questions, Dominic asked,
"What do you think of me?"
"I think you're good material," answered the priest, with a big smile.
"Well, then," said Dominic, "You are a good tailor, so if the material is good, take me and make a new suit out of me for Our Lord!"
Everyone in the school saw from the way he prayed that this boy was different. He greatly loved all the boys, and even though he was younger, he used to worry about them. He was afraid that they would lose the grace of God by sinning.
One day, a fellow brought a magazine full of bad pictures to school. In a minute, a group of boys had gathered around him to see it.
"What's up?" wondered Dominic, and he, too, went to look. Just one peek was enough for him. He grabbed the magazine and tore it to pieces! "Poor us!" he cried in the meantime, "Did God give us eyes to look at such things as this? Aren't you ashamed?"
"Oh, we were just looking at these pictures for the fun of it," said one boy.
"Sure, for fun," answered Dominic, "and in the meantime you're preparing yourselves to go to hell!"
"Oh, what's so wrong about looking at these pictures anyway?" another fellow demanded.
Dominic had a ready answer. "If you don't see anything wrong," he said sadly, "this is even worse." It means you're used to looking at shameful things!"
No one said anything after that. They all realized that Dominic was right. Another time he stopped a terrific stone-throwing fight between two angry boys. Holding up a little crucifix between them, he said, "Before you fight, look at this and say, 'Jesus Christ was innocent and He died forgiving His murderers. I am a sinner, and I am going to hurt Him by not forgiving my enemies.' Then you can start - and throw your first stone at me!"
The two boys were so ashamed of themselves that they apologized, and promised to go to confession too.
One day Dominic began to feel sick and was sent home to get better. While at home he grew worse, instead, and received the last Sacraments. He was only fifteen then, but he did not fear death. In fact, he was overjoyed at the thought of going to Heaven. Just before he died, he tried to sit up.
"Goodbye," he murmured to his good father. Suddenly his face lit up with a smile of great joy and happiness. "I am seeing such wonderful things!" he exclaimed. Then he spoke no more, for he had gone to Heaven.
Dominic is the patron saint of choir boys and of the falsely accused.
This latter title was given to him due to the following incident. One time, two boys filled the school stove with snow and garbage during the cold winter months. When the teacher came back into the room, they falsely accused Dominic of doing the "dirty" deed. Although disciplined in front of the entire class, Dominic refused to tell on the two mischievous boys. When the truth was later revealed, Dominic was asked why he didn't confess to his innocence. He remarked that he was imitating Our Lord, Who remained silent during His persecutions and crucifixion.


His feast day is March 9th.
Happy New Year!!!

Sorry I'm saying this so late, but the year is still relatively new! I hope you have all made New Year's resolutions. This seems to be at least one good cultural tradition that is still prevalent! I'll post my resolutions below and then if you like you can post your own in the combox. Let me know next year how you did!

2008 Resolutions...
1. Be more diligent in my spiritual and temporal duties. (This also requires me to get up at 6 AM every weekday at least... Not my best hour)
2. Read more. Let's see... How about around 50 books this year.
3. Learn Spanish better
I know I need a lot more resolutions than these to keep me out of trouble...