Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Chaplet of Divine Mercy

If you check my link to videos and in my Youtube account I have all the ten video clips on Divine Mercy. Thanks for your prayers and support. Easch time you encourage a person,you are extending his life in happiness. Many who are sick in life are due to the lacks of good friends who is there for them to encourage, to support, to guide. A sense of lonliness and a feeling of emptiness is the beginning of every sickness mental and physical. Let our good God shower his Mercy upon us.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Thank you

14th anniversary and St John Neumann
In Philippians 1:3 we read "I THANK MY GOD EVERY TIME I THINK OF YOU"
Today is the fourteenth anniversary of the day when I celebrated my first Mass. I have never regretted my decision to be a priest. I hope and trust the Lord will give me grace to persevere to the end. “Glory be to Him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine” (Eph. 3:20). I ask you, my dear sisters and brothers, to pray with me and for me to the good God who can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. The priestly vocation is more than a job – it’s a vocation!
The priesthood leads one to serve God in a state which, in itself, is no better or worse than any other: it is simply different. But the priestly vocation is invested with a dignity and greatness which has no equal on earth. Saint Catherine of Siena put these words on Jesus' lips: I do not
wish the respect which priests should be given to be in any way diminished; for the reverence and respect which is shown them is not referred to them but to Me, by virtue of the Blood which I have given to them to administer. Were it not for this, you should render them the same reverence as lay people, and no more... You must not offend them; by offending them you offend Me and not them. Therefore I forbid it and I have laid it down that you shall not touch my Christs.
Some people keep searching for what they call the identity of the priest. How clearly Saint Catherine expresses it! What is the identity of the priest? That of Christ. All of us Christians can and should be not just other Christs, alter Christus, but Christ himself: ipse Christus! But in the priest this happens in a direct way, by virtue of the sacrament.
There's a beautiful book on the priesthood by Fr. Michael Heher, from the Diocese of Orange, in California. It's called "The Lost Art of Walking on Water." And near the end, he compares the mission of the Church to that moment when St. Peter stepped out of the boat and for one miraculous moment walked on water. We all need to follow Peter's example, Fr. Heher says - and we can only do it by keeping our eyes fixed on Christ. The message is clear: the waters may be turbulent. The wind may howl. But get out of the boat. With Jesus as your lifeguard, you can do the impossible.
Peter did it. Priests, in their way, do it, too. They have summoned the courage to leave what is safe and secure and give their lives over to a miracle. A miracle that says again and again, "God loves you." My dear friends, for all the blessings you have given to me in my years of ministry, specially these last three years in St John, I thank you.
Today we remember a great American Saint; St. John Neumann. He was born on March 28, 1811 in Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. At age 20, he still was not sure what to do with his life. His father wanted him to be a doctor, but he followed the advice of his mother who encouraged him to enter the seminary. His bishop declined to ordain him when his studies were completed, because of a large number of priests who were ordained that year. Neumann decided to become a missionary to the United States. John Neumann arrived in New York on June 6, 1836 with one suit of clothes and a dollar in his pocket. He was ordained by Bishop John DuBois of New York at the age of 25.
Pope Pius IX declared him a Bishop in 1852. The poor people affectionately called him “Our Little Bishop” because of his short stature. He was five feet and two inches tall. Wealthy and influential Catholics looked down upon him. They did not like his mannerisms and his German accent. They wanted a person who could speak English well and make a good impression. They wrote to Rome to try to have him replaced, but the poor, especially the new immigrants loved him.Bishop Neumann died of a sudden stroke as was doing errands on January 5, 1860. On the day of his death he told Father Urban, the visiting Redemptorist Superior, that he had a strange feeling about today and then added "One must always be ready - Death comes when and where God wills it.”