‎You learn to speak by speaking,
to study by studying,
to run by running,
to work by working,
and just so,
you learn to love by loving.
All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.

St. Francis de Sales

All Hallow's Eve and the Holy Ones

Painting "Minka" her pumpkin.  Strange kid, she named her pumpkin.;-)

Dad took the girls out for a few treats on Halloween.  Sounded like Dad got more 'treats' than the girls.

For the All Saints party that we didn't get to do (Welcome Hand Foot and Mouth Disease!) Here is St. George.



And the Dragon! Do dragons have hooves?  Perhaps that's were the HFM came from. ;-)

St. George and the Dragon (its G week here, folks!)

We're cooped up for the next 7-10 with HFM, ugh.  Go away blisters, go away! But counting our blessings it certainly could be worse.  Both girls are chipper considering and Daddy is bringing home things that will be fun to eat with mouth sores. ;-)  Hope to post some educational things here soon...but we'll se with sick kids how that goes.  For now, pictures will have to do.

Blessed John Paul II

My personal story with Blessed John Paul II began the summer of 1993.  I was just out of 8th grade and my mom finagled me a spot on our Diocesan lead trip to Denver, CO for World Youth Day.  There were 10 of us from our small parish that made the trip.

I'm on the far left in the back.

 It was a LONG bus ride.  My strongest memories of the trip are of time spent in Mile High Stadium where the Holy Father  and various bishops spoke to us.  The theme song I remember was 'We are One Body' and the gospel message  "I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full" (Jn 10:10)  The cheers for the World Youth Day cross being carried into the stadium and the cheers for the Holy Father as he entered in the popemobile gave me chills. Oh, and the weather that day was rainy and when the pope came, the clouds cleared the sun shone and there was a rainbow over the scene- a coincidence only God could come up with!
 

I have pictures of the Holy Father's helicopter flying him into the stadium and these 'close' pictures of him on the jumbo-tron.

 As with every WYD the highlight of the week long pilgrimage is a hike out to a field where pilgrims will spent the night on the ground in vigil for the Sunday morning Mass with the Pope.

Here's a shot I dug up of the pilgrims hiking out of Denver to our field.

Looking back at this pilgrimage, that summer was a point of conversion for me.  The Catholicity of the faith became so obvious in the gathering of cultures of the young faithful from all over the world.   The faith became my own.  It penetrated my life at school and at home in ways that it hadn't before and in a real sense I grew up as I entered high school that fall.  I began to defend the Church and her teachings at my public school- I wrote a letter to the high school paper about swearing and recall asking a friend, who was making fun of the pope to not do so.

In college, I grew even closer to JPII- reading some of his writings and seeking like him to be "Totus Tuus"  I was especially fond of Familaris Consortio. I was able to make another pilgrimage to hear him speak at St. Peter's in Rome at the end of the Jubilee Year.  [I couldn't find pictures from that one].

I began working that summer in youth ministry and had big plans lead a pilgrimage of my own to World Youth Day in Toronto, Canada in 2002.  There were 20 of us, including my mom this time!  She encouraged me to go that first time and I returned the favor this time around and had her chaperone.  It was AWESOME to share a pilgrimage experience with the youth of my parish.

This time we got a lot closer as the Holy Father came through.

Our zone in the field was prime real estate.  You can see the stage behind us.  The headphones with A.M. radio were treasures, too, especially if you're rusty on other languages.

I am third in on the back left.  My mom is in the back to the right of the sign in the WYD hat.

The Holy Father had aged since I saw him in Denver.

This time my memories are a little firmer.  There are two stories revolving around bathrooms (maybe for another post) and I remember the theme and the experience of pilgrimage (not to be confused with vacation) as a spiritual reality.  John Paul II brought me to tears more than once on that trip with his words to me and the youth of the Church.

I had the opportunity to start studying for my Masters in Theology the fall following that trip.  And that first year took The Writings of John Paul II as a course!  My studies lead to a move to Stevens Point Pacelli and as co-Director of Campus Ministry once again I would get to make a pilgrimage to World Youth Day.   Our plans were already in place on April 2, 2005 when John Paul II died.  The Holy Father had already written his message for the celebration of the 20th WYD in Cologne, Germany that summer.  As part of our trip we were able to stop at the Vatican and visit the tomb of the late John Paul II. 

The grave of Pope John Paul II

Camping out for the vigil, 2005.

And the 800,000 plus young people gathered that week- especially at the vigil remembered the legacy of the previous pope as we prayed with Benedict XVI.  I am part of what some call the JPII generation, I grew up  with John Paul II as pope.

Tomorrow, May 1, 2011 John Paul II will be declared blessed.  And though he is not John Paul the Great, yet, GREAT has been his influence on me and my spiritual pilgrimage in the Church and for that I am grateful.

Blessed John Paul II, pray for us!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

December 6th is the day the Church celebrates the life of St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra. He is the patron saint of sailors and probably more obviously children. This memorial is one we've celebrated since I was little receiving gifts in our stockings. Today was no different.

The Catholic tradition of honoring the lives of Saints is sometimes misunderstood. A saint according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church is the "holy one" who leads a life in union with God through the grace of Christ and receives the reward of eternal life. The Church is called the communion of saints, of the holy ones. You can see in this definition that there are two distinct uses then for the term saint. Those as members of the Church, faithful holy ones. And those that the Church calls canonized [this is really a fancy word for being on the list] saints. These deceased men and women have been declared by the Church as a proposed model and intercessor to the Christian faithful. They are given the title saint based on the fact that the person lived a life of heroic virtue or remained faithful to God through martyrdom.

Basically, the Church is willing to say that there are certain people that are with God in Heaven. This doesn't happen instantly or without trial [literally- each candidate for sainthood is put on trial and their holiness must be proven]. And that is not to say that there are certainly many other beloved dead that are saints that perhaps will never be declared worldwide but nonetheless are models of faith and great intercessors. However, we Christians can certainly use models of faith to aid us in our lives and certainly are in need of all the prayer we can get.

The saints in heaven are not dead. Jesus said, "Have you not read 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Issac, and the God of Jacob?' He is not the God of the dead but of the living." Mt. 22:31-32 Those who die in Christ are now alive in Christ in Heaven. [Related verses: Mk 9:4, Lk 23:43, Rev. 6:9-11, I Cor. 12:12-27; Heb. 12:1, 12:22-24] This is why we ask for the prayers of the saints. In the same way we would ask any brother or sister in Christ to pray for us.


May we be inspired by the example of St. Nicholas and All Saints. May we learn to proclaim what they believed and put their teaching into action. St. Nicholas, pray for us!