Confession With The Pope

When you go to confession, whether with the Pope or not, and encounter someone much greater - Jesus.

Want To Change the World? Maybe Just Yourself?

Well, change starts with the first step forward and continues as you progress toward your goal. There are three great goals of the Christian life:

• Give God glory
• Grow in holiness
• Go to Heaven

If we want to achieve these three goals we have to make choices, in the present, that will help us reach our future destination. More than anything, we must have faith, hope, and love. Because these are goals that drive the Saints. These positive motivations will give us reasons to make the right choice.

But, making the right decisions isn't easy sometimes. This is where habit and character come in. We must ask God for help in making changes, because changing our bad habits into good ones is never easy. Yet, this is where virtue is formed and a virtuous person (a person of good habits) is a person with character.

Make the right choice today. Take that step forward.
With that in mind, I ask you to take some time to read the following thoughts of Pope Benedict XVI:

I hope that among those of you listening to me today there are some of the future saints of the twenty-first century. What God wants most of all for each one of you is that you should become holy. He loves you much more than you could ever begin to imagine, and he wants the very best for you. And by far the best thing for you is to grow in holiness.

Perhaps some of you have never thought about this before. Perhaps some of you think being a saint is not for you. Let me explain what I mean. When we are young, we can usually think of people that we look up to, people we admire, people we want to be like. It could be someone we meet in our daily lives that we hold in great esteem. Or it could be someone famous. We live in a celebrity culture, and young people are often encouraged to model themselves on figures from the world of sport or entertainment. My question for you is this: what are the qualities you see in others that you would most like to have yourselves? What kind of person would you really like to be?

When I invite you to become saints, I am asking you not to be content with second best. I am asking you not to pursue one limited goal and ignore all the others. Having money makes it possible to be generous and to do good in the world, but on its own, it is not enough to make us happy. Being highly skilled in some activity or profession is good, but it will not satisfy us unless we aim for something greater still. It might make us famous, but it will not make us happy. Happiness is something we all want, but one of the great tragedies in this world is that so many people never find it, because they look for it in the wrong places. The key to it is very simple – true happiness is to be found in God. We need to have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God. Only he can satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts.

Not only does God love us with a depth and an intensity that we can scarcely begin to comprehend, but he invites us to respond to that love. You all know what it is like when you meet someone interesting and attractive, and you want to be that person’s friend. You always hope they will find you interesting and attractive, and want to be your friend. God wants your friendship. And once you enter into friendship with God, everything in your life begins to change. As you come to know him better, you find you want to reflect something of his infinite goodness in your own life. You are attracted to the practice of virtue. You begin to see greed and selfishness and all the other sins for what they really are, destructive and dangerous tendencies that cause deep suffering and do great damage, and you want to avoid falling into that trap yourselves. You begin to feel compassion for people in difficulties and you are eager to do something to help them. You want to come to the aid of the poor and the hungry, you want to comfort the sorrowful, you want to be kind and generous. And once these things begin to matter to you, you are well on the way to becoming saints.

Aggie Catholic Priest Leads International Congress on Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in Rome

Fr. Florian Racine was in grad school here while I was an undergraduate. He might be one of the few people I have ever met who said my name more correctly than I do myself. He got a master’s degree in ocean engineering from Texas A&M University in 1994. Fr. Racine worked two years in Houston as an engineer at  before being ordained for the Diocese of Frejus-Toulon in 2002.

Several years after his ordination he established the Missionnaries of the Most Holy Eucharist, a clerical association of diocesan rite, which encourages Eucharistic Adoration around the world.

This past week the group hosted an International Congress on Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in Rome entitled - Adoratio 2011: From Adoration to Evangelization.



Aggie Catholics: Forming Apostles For The Church and the World

The Dos and Don’ts of Reading the Bible

We live in a world of dos and don’ts. We use them every day: Do brush your teeth. Don’t drive too fast. They seem to impact our lives from minute to minute. Our consciences, our faith, and our knowledge of the world help us manage all the dos and don’ts we encounter. This goes for our relationship with God as well. When reading and applying the Bible to our daily lives, a few simple dos and don’ts will help us bring the Bible more clearly into our daily lives.

Do: Read the Bible frequently, daily if possible.
Don’t: Let your Bible go unread today.
–This one is simple in principle and difficult in practice for many of us. An analogy may help. The Bible is commonly referred to as a love letter from God to his people, the church. But, what good is a love letter when it is rarely opened, read with anticipation, and absorbed into one’s heart and mind? We, as members of the church, as God’s beloved, should relish the opportunity to read God’s love letter one more time.

Do: Focus on the big-picture of the Bible.
Don’t: Get caught up in too many details.
–There is no doubt that some details are important. But, they can become distractions when we fail to see the bigger story of God coming to us.

Do: Read the Bible expecting to encounter God.
Don’t: Read the Bible to prove someone wrong.
–Reading the Bible is an opportunity to commune with God, who made us. It is a chance to find out about who we are made to be and to learn about the one who made us. It is not supposed to be a book of arguments that can be used against someone with whom we disagree. I know from first-hand experience the turmoil that can occur when we use the Bible as a weapon in an argument.

Do: Read the Bible slowly and prayerfully.
Don’t: Read the Bible for dos and don’ts.
–The Bible is not just a book of what we are to do and not do. It is a book about a relationship that God forms with each of us and His pursuit and forgiveness of us. So do read the Bible slowly and prayerfully seek to understand God’s word and live it in your everyday life.

Do: Stop reading when you are struck by a word or phrase.
Don’t: Chug right through until you reach the end.
–The first to reach the end of the next chapter doesn’t get a gold medal. If something affects you when reading Scripture, then stop and reflect on why it moved you.

Do: Use good solid Bible commentaries.
Don’t: Neglect reading the text of the Bible in favor of them.
–The point of using commentaries is to supplement one’s reading of the Bible, not to take the place of it.

Do: Get a good Bible.
Don’t: Get caught up in which translation is best.
–One of the more common questions Catholics ask is “which translation is best?” For most people, the best translation of the Bible is the one you read. However, there are different translations to explore, if that is your choice, with a range of choices. If you want a specific recommendation, I would recommend the RSV-Catholic Edition.

Do: Make changes in your life when challenged by Scripture.
Don’t: Put the changes off for another time.
–Christ is the Great Doctor. Christ’s grace is the medicine He offers us. One avenue of receiving that grace is through reading and applying Scripture to our lives. If we fail to apply it, then it is as if we went to the doctor and were diagnosed with a disease (realized our need for God’s grace); were given a prescription and bought it (read the Bible); but then never took the medicine that could make us healthy again (failed to apply the Bible to our lives).

The Bible is a great gift from God to His people. May all of us take the time to unwrap the gift and share it with others by living it out.

This article has been published on Catholic Exchange.

Fasting

Q - How does one fast? What is reasonable?

A - Good question. The only time that fasting is obligatory for Catholics is during those times of the year that are set apart as special penitential days (Good Friday & Ash Wednesday). The Church law allows for one full meal "but does not prohibit taking some food in the morning and evening" also.

So, if you choose to fast outside of these two times it is not an obligation, but should be done in freedom. If you want to fast more than what the Church has set as guidelines you can do so, but I recommend you talk to a spiritual director beforehand. A simple set of rules to follow may be that you don't want to hinder your ability to perform the other things you are obligated to take care of. For instance, you don't want to weaken yourself to the point of not being able to pay attention in class if you are a student or take away your ability to concentrate at work. You also want to fulfill other obligations to your family, friends, etc.

Why do we fast? By denying ourselves something good, we remember what the highest good of all is - GOD. We also practice self-discipline and self-mastery, which we need in order to achieve holiness. Jesus fasted in the desert and calls us to as well.

"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full." (Matt 6: 16)

"and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer." (Luke 2:37)

Yet when they were ill, I...humbled myself with fasting.” (Psalm 35:13)

Peace to you in your desire to grow closer to God.

Do You Struggle With Prayer? The Pope Understands.