Novena to St. Jean Marie Vianney

Here's the bi-monthly prayer: The Novena to St. Jean Marie Vianney

Saint Jean Vianney, you were born of a deeply religious mother; from here you received the Holy Faith, you learned to love God, and to pray.

Against many obstacles and contradictions, you had to fight and suffer to become the perfect priest which you were. Your deep spirit of faith supported you in all these battles. I would like to serve God better; from Him I have received so many good things. For this, obtain for me more courage and especially the depth of faith.

Holy Priest of Ars, i have confidence in your intercession. Pray for me during this novena especially for ... (mention silently your special intentions).

Our Father ...

Hail Mary ...

Glory Be ...

Diary of St. Faustina

I thought it would be good to share this small part of St. Faustina's writings with everyone. All of the following is from the Diary of St. Faustina, "General Exercises", pages 91-92

+O Most Holy Trinity! As many times as I breathe, as many times as my heart beats, as many times as my blood pulsates through my body, so many thousand times do I want to glorify Your mercy.

+I want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your living reflection, O Lord. May the greatest of all divine attributes, that of Your unfathomable mercy, pass through my heart and soul to my neighbor.
Help me, O Lord, that my eyes may be merciful, so that I may never suspect or judge from appearances, but look for what is beautiful in my neighbors’ souls and come to their rescue.

Help me , that my ears may be merciful, so that I may give heed to my neighbors’ needs and not be indifferent to their pains and moanings.

Help me, O Lord, that my tongue may be merciful, so that I should never speak negatively of my neighbor, but have a word of comfort and forgiveness for all.
Help me, O Lord, that my hands may be merciful and filled with good deeds, so that I may do only good to my neighbors and take upon myself the more difficult and toilsome tasks.

Help me, that my feet may be merciful, so that I may hurry to assist my neighbor, overcoming my own fatigue and weariness. My true rest is in the service of my neighbor.

Help me, O Lord, that my heart may be merciful so that I myself may feel all the sufferings of my neighbor. I will refuse my heart to no one. I will be sincere even with those who, I know, will abuse my kindness. And I will lock myself up in the most merciful Heart of Jesus. I will bear my own suffering in silence. May Your mercy, O Lord, rest upon me.

+You Yourself command me to exercise the three degrees of mercy. The first: the act of mercy, of whatever kind. The second: the word of mercy – if I cannot carry out a work of mercy, I will assist by my words. The third: prayer – if I cannot show mercy by deeds or words, I can always do so by prayer. My prayer reaches out even there where I cannot reach out physically. O my Jesus, transform me into Yourself, for you can do all things.

The Silence

So, I have been running around going crazy nuts after my ordination to the diaconate back in May. I have [recently acquired] many leather-bound books (cf. Anchorman...sorry, had to do it). Anywho, I hope to be back on the reading rainbow (seriously, I don't know where this is coming from) sometime soon, at which point I will hopefully begin to post a bit more frequently.

In other news, I have started a blog of my own dedicated to homilies and reflections that I have written. As a deacon, I'm preaching 4-5 days a week now and so I will be posting on there pretty frequently. Until next time, you stay classy, San Diego. Or Baton Rouge. Or New Orleans. Or wherever you are.

http://philomenarocks.blogspot.com/
^my new blog.

Catholic Study Bible

All of us on this blog are big fans of Dr. Scott Hahn and all that he has done for contemporary Biblical scholarship and making that scholarship available to the average Catholic lay person. We found great resources in the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible series on the New Testament. They in essence became our text books when the assigned one's failed. Ignatius press has decided to put the New Testament series into volume.

Y'all this a great buy for everyone:

the Catholic wishing to learn more about the New Testament

the Catholic school teacher

the parish DRE

the CCD teacher

the preacher

the youth minister

I know that I speak for all us in recommending this study edition of the New Testament.

Men Preparing for the Priesthood Using Their Bodies Well

Warning: After you press play, you need to move the video cursor thingy forward for it to start playing. Bear with the freeness of the website.

A buddy of mine attends seminary at the North American College in Rome. Each year there is a soccer competition between all of the seminaries in Rome called the Clericus Cup. This year its final was covered by FoxSports.

Other than the awesomeness of being covered by a national news syndicate. These men and their formators were a great witness. Monsignor Claudio Paganni, President of the Clerius Cup, threw out the theology of body on a major news syndicate. "We are showing here how games and the body are values and not imitations ... The human body should used to give glory to God not for acts of deviance."

Such a great witness to the whole world and nobody was "copping a vicious headbutt when the ref's not looking."