Abbey-Roads2

St John’s on the Eastside of St. Paul.

The sanctuary - changed from my time by the free standing altar.

It was here I made my First Confession, and my First Communion, which I remember as if it were yesterday.  (I confessed I had committed murder, because in my simplicity of trying to stop a baby robin fleeing my attempts to pick it up, I dropped a brick on it.  It died.)

My sister’s girl friend once told on me because she caught me trying to hug the tabernacle in this Church.

Once, my brother pulled me off the Blessed Virgin’s altar as I climbed up on it in order to kiss the feet of her statue.  (I had my shoes off!)

Return me, O Lord, to my early love!

(I’ll be posting some more things from this Church on my Leaflet Blog.)

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St. Joseph

He is considered the patron of a happy death because he died in the company of Jesus and Mary.  I have a private devotion to the most pure heart of St. Joseph, because I believe there is no other saint whose heart was so pure and devoutly faithful to the Will of God.  He cared for the Blessed Virgin as the most loving of husbands, and raised the Child Jesus as the most wise and loving of fathers.  His heart was definitely pure and chaste, inflamed with love for God alone - more fiercely than all of the Patriarchs who preceded him.  Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.”  Joseph’s death was happy because he saw God.  He lived by faith and his faith was so intense, it can only be equated with vision of things unseen - God Himself in Christ Jesus.

Holy Mother St. Teresa of Jesus on St. Joseph:  

Would that I could persuade all men to be devoted to this glorious Saint, for I know by long experience what blessings he can obtain for us from God. I have never known anyone who was truly devoted to him and honored him by particular services who did not advance greatly in virtue: for he helps in a special way those souls who commend themselves to him. It is now very many years since I began asking him for something on his feast, and I have always received it. If the petition was in any way amiss, he rectified it for my greater good . . .” I ask for the love of God that he who does not believe me will make the trial for himself, then he will find out by experience the great good that results from commending oneself to this glorious Patriarch and in being devoted to him. - St. Teresa of Avila 

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Of the New Ways Ministry

Agenda?  What agenda?

Dissident Catholics, amongst whom are many of the GLBT crowd, including their families, often insist there is no gay agenda to change the world and the Church.  That is so not true.

This weekend in Minneapolis, New Ways Ministery is holding its National Symposium On Catholics and Homosexuality.  It is not endorsed by the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis.  Nevertheless, not a few locals associated with this archdiocese will be involved, some of them speaking, while a couple of local Catholic Churches have also been listed as supporters of the event, including the Sisters of St. Joseph of Corondolet.  In fact it is rather scandalous to read the list of supporters.  Check out the PDF - it lists everyone who is speaking, along with their agenda.

One of the speakers is Michael Bayly, his offering is titled; “Breaking Bread - Gay and Lesbian Parish Ministry.”  His profile identifies him as Executive Director of the Pastoral Committe on Sexual Minorities in the Twin Cities, as well as acting Co-ordinator of the Safe Schools Project.

There is definitely an agenda here.  Thanks to Roman Catholic Blog, I found this great quote from Cardinal Bertone concerning the enemies of the Church:

Italian journalist Gianni Cardinale, asked Bertone about atheists who may support the Pope on certain issues such as his stance on Islam. “If I can put it in a sound-bite,” Bertone said as translated by Vatican reporter John Allen, “the church doesn’t really worry about atheists, however devout, because they’re out of her spiritual jurisdiction, so to speak. Much more worrisome are those inside the church who work to distort its faith and moral principles, or who oppose the pope and his design for renewal of the church.”  LifeSite News  

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