Pray for these guys!

top row: Michael Rudolph. Bobby Pish, David Hennen, Michael Izen
bottom row: Jim Liekhaus, Timothy Yanta, Randal Kasel, Dan Bodin
not pictured: Hoang Nguyen, Erich Ruetten, Christopher Shofner, Terry Beeson, Thomas Joseph, Troy Przybilla, John Gallas


This Saturday, Archbishop Harry Flynn will ordain 15 men to the priesthood, the most ordinations in any year since 1963. Pray for them, that they may be true to the calling they've received:

Lord Jesus, we your people pray to You for our priests. You have given them to us for our needs. We pray for them in their needs.

We know that You have made them priests in the likeness of your own priesthood. You have consecrated them, set them aside, annointed them, filled them with the Holy Spirit, appointed them to teach, to preach, to minister, to console, to forgive, and to feed us with Your Body and Blood.

Yet we know, too, that they are one with us and share our human weaknesses. We know too that they are tempted to sin and discouragement as are we, needing to be ministered to, as do we, to be consoled and forgiven, as do we. Indeed, we thank You for choosing them from among us, so that they understand us as we understand them, suffer with us and rejoice with us, worry with us and trust with us, share our beings, our lives, our faith.

We ask that You give them this day the gift You gave Your chosen ones on the way to Emmaus: Your presence in their hearts, Your holiness in their souls, Your joy in their spirits. And let them see You face to face in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread.

We pray to You, O Lord, through Mary the mother of all priests, for Your priests and for ours. Amen.

(source)

And hey, if you're in the area, the Ordination Mass is at 10:00 a.m. on May 28, at the Cathedral of Saint Paul.

Blogging Vacation

Posting will be nonexistent for the next couple weeks, as we're taking our first family vacation in a few years, to Yellowstone. I'm expecting to return around the 28th, with plenty of tales of "vacation fun" (what could be funner than countless hours in the car?)

Benedict to Waive Five-Year Waiting Period for John Paul the Great's Beatification

Mom heard this on the radio this morning, and I searched for quite a while to find it - apparently no English news outlets have picked it up yet. I finally found this on the Vatican website. I know no Italian, and I didn't take the time to translate the Latin well, but as far as I can tell, it's the official declaration the the five-year period will be waived. It's nice to find to actually be able to use my Latin...

Going to the Dogs

I read a great article this morning on Catholic Exchange about the correlation between the number of children most people have, compared with the number of dogs they have:

"For a society to replace its population, demographers say each woman needs to average 2.1 children. Germany is at 1.3, Italy 1.2, Spain 1.1, and France 1.7. The rest of Europe might be a little better or a little worse (I don't have the stat in front of me, but I believe the Netherlands is at .9). Blue states in the US are slightly below 2.1, and red states are just a little above it, if memory serves.

So am I concerned about the lack of workers to pay for my social security? The collapsing infrastructure? Muslim immigration taking over traditional Christian countries?

Naw. Those are all legitimate concerns, of course.

But I'm worried about the dogs."

(read the entire article here)

Now, we have a dog, and I like her well enough, but we decided long ago that when the aliens invade, or the volcano erupts (ala "Independence Day," "Dante's Peak," or any movie where people put themselves in danger to save their beloved Fido), if Bailey's not in the car, she's getting left behind. Actually, I proposed the same thing for my siblings, but it didn't go over too well...

Happy anniversary, Mom & Dad!

Thanks for always being an example of a good, Catholic marriage.

Happy Mother's Day!

The Most Important Person
on earth is a mother. She
cannot claim the honor of
having built Notre Dame
Cathedral. She need not. She
has built something more
magnificent than any
cathedral-a dwelling for an
immortal soul, the tiny
perfection of her baby's
body…The angels have not
been blessed with such a
grace. They cannot share in
God's creative miracle to bring
new saints to Heaven. Only a
human mother can. Mothers
are closer to God the Creator
than any other creature; God

joins forces with mothers in
performing this act of
creation…What on God's
good earth is more glorious
than this: to be a mother?

-Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty

Hurray for our Bishop!

For the first time in several years, Rainbow Sash wearers will not be allowed to receive Communion in the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis. I think I'll send Archbishop Flynn a nice letter...

Truly He is Risen!

(Previous Easter banners)


(current Easter banners)

Thank God that we're finally rid of the rainbow monstrosity. I would love to know what led up to the decision, but I'm just glad it's gone. Of course, now we can't go through with our plans to have tongues of fire descending it on Pentecost (just kidding...sort of).

UPDATE: The official line we've been getting is that the banners were switched for Ascension Sunday (don't even get me started on that...). I might buy that excuse, except that last year, the disgrace-to-the-name-of-fabric stayed up past Pentecost.

Happy Ascension Thursday!

Go to Mass today even though you don't have to!

Geek rant

"I'm not making these, oddly enough, to be giant, successful blockbusters. I'm making them because I'm telling a story, and I have to tell the story I intended."

-George Lucas
(entire story here)

I have just a little trouble believing that. Don't get me wrong; I'm a huge fan of the original Star Wars movies. But the storytelling in Episodes 1 & 2 definitely took a backseat to...pretty much everything else. Episode 1 was obviously playing toward the 10-year-old boy demographic, and Episode 2 tried to snare the pre-teen girl group (and I must say, as someone who was a pre-teen girl when it came out, I was not impressed). Don't tell me he's not making them to be sucessful.
I heard it said once that George Lucas should be tied down and forced to read his own dialogue. I'll bring the rope.

But, hey, I can be an optimist. Maybe Episode 3 will be everything the other two weren't. Maybe it'll be awesome and (almost) make up for the last two. I'd even go to a midnight showing if I weren't going to be out of town.
Whew...got that out of my system. Now I can go back to being a non-geek for a while (until May 19, anyway)

Rainbow Sash Movement Gearing up for Annual Demonstration

From a press release by the Rainbow Sash Movement:

The Rainbow Sash Movement (RSM) with its supporters will be entering Cathedrals and parishes around the nation on Pentecost Sunday, May 15. We are inviting our supporters to join us, and wear the Rainbow Sash as a symbol of dignity and inclusion.

We continue to call for public dialogue with Cardinal Francis George Vice President of the National Council of Catholic Bishops.

In the weeks since the death of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI. For many gay men and lesbians the name Joseph Ratzinger means aggressive homophobe.

We hope that our presence will also counter the lies that Pope Benedict XVI is promoting about our community. We are Catholic, and will raise our voices to speak to the truth of our lives from the pews. We will no longer be silent in the face of this injustice.

(read the entire press release here)

Okay, so let me get this straight. They're Catholic, but they call the pope a lying, aggressive homophobe. Yep, I can see where that's going to be really effective in opening that public dialogue they want. The press release also includes instructions on how you, an average Catholic wishing to show solidarity with your GLBT brethren, can make your own rainbow sash and wear it on Pentecost.

I'm tempted to forward this article to our parish's liturgist in hopes of having our rainbow monstrosity removed before then. Last year, it stayed up into Ordinary Time.

It occured to me this morning that today is the 8th anniversary of my First Communion. Since I was 8 when I received it, that means that I have been receiving Communion for as long as I didn't. How cool.

Weinie Roast

To preface these photos: Really, it's not what it looks like! Okay, it's exactly what it looks like. And it was fun.
In our Bible Study, we've been discussing the Inquisition, and our annual bonfire was last night. Not willing to let such a perfect learning opportunity pass, I printed off pictures of several heretics, including some of the classics (Luther, Calvin, Arius), some newer ones (Fr. McBrian, the Governing Board of Voice of the Faithful, and a liturgical dancer from the Call to Action conference), and someone who, to the best of my knowledge, isn't technically a heretic (as far as I know, he doesn't claim to be Catholic) but deserved to be burned anyway: Dan Brown. The whole thing was great fun, and I think we may just do it again next year.

I just realized that when my mom commented on Em's post about the MN Catholic Home Ed Conference, she accidentally listed her homepage as this blog. Not that I mind the traffic it's generating, of course...

Anyway, like Em said, the 7th Annual Denim Skirt Invitational is coming up at the beginning of next month. Right now, I'm up to my elbows in registrations and other stuff that needs to be done soon. If anyone is in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area during the first week of June, you're more than welcome to join us at the University of St. Thomas. As Emily said, if Dr. Ray and Holly Pierlot aren't enough to tempt you, keep in mind that we have scores of P.O.D vendors and book sellers.