Praying for vocations?

Today's reflection from Presentation Ministries is so good, it needs to be reposted.

One Bread, One Body - Reflection for September 30, 2010

TRUSTING, FOR VOCATIONS

"The harvest is rich but the workers are few; therefore ask the Harvest-Master to send workers to His harvest." –Luke 10:2

Jesus calls us to pray for workers to gather in His harvest. At the same time He usually calls us to first accept His call to work (Lk 10:1). So we pray for workers on our way to work. While praying for workers, we go to work having provided ourselves with nothing. Jesus commanded us to trust Him completely. He said: "Be on your way, and remember: I am sending you as lambs in the midst of wolves. Do not carry a walking staff or traveling bag; wear no sandals" (Lk 10:3-4).

For years many of us have been praying for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Our prayers do not seem to have been answered. Some feel that many people are selfishly rejecting God's call. Yet possibly our prayers for vocations are not more frequently answered because we are praying wrongly (see Jas 4:3; Rm 8:26). We may be praying without working or working without trusting. We may be saying the right words but not in the right context or spirit.

Try praying for vocations God's way. Work at your own vocation – married, religious, or lay single – and then pray. Trust God in new and practical ways, and then pray. You may see your prayers for vocations answered as never before.

Tune In Sundays!

It's been announced that Fr. Barron will launch a nationwide television program in October, becoming the only Catholic priest in the country with a national television platform.  He'll be their first priest  since Archbishop Fulton Sheen in the '50's to have a regular, national program on a commercial television network.

Word on Fire with Father Barron will appear on WGN America Sundays at 8:30 am Central.

I know, we have 8:30 Mass here, too, but I'll be taping it to watch when we get home.

For more about Father Barrnon and his ministry, check out his website at wordonfire.org

What is a Godly Woman?

A Godly woman is a woman who seeks to know, love and serve God, to live joyfully and in abundant grace and strength.  There are seven essential goals to which a Godly Woman aspires:

Read the rest here, you'll be glad you did!

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/cw/post.php?id=373

Divine Mercy Conference - what a great day!

It was a day full of miracles.  The speakers were great, the day was a spiritual refresher.  If you missed it, you can make up for it, though!  Plan to attend next year's event on Oct. 1, 2011.  Among the speakers for the 2011 date is non other that Father Donald Calloway!

A tribute for my mother-in-law

We unexpectedly lost another family member last week.  My husband's mother passed away during surgery last Friday.

We were going to go to the fair and get her mini donuts for supper, we were going to let her heal for a couple days then transfer her back home.  Yeah, well, God had other ideas.

They were only going to clean out a wound, but it was much more complicated than that.  When the surgeon came to tell us that surgery was not going as planned, we were caught off guard.  Suddenly we were talking about DNR status and the possibility that if she survived surgery, she'd require life support.

After he went to get a status check, the surgeon came back and said that it was done, she'd made that decision for us.  I truly believe that God came to her and asked if she wanted to go now.  She made a good choice.  She's suffered much.  Blessed are the suffering, they shall inherit the Kingdom of God.  She now knows pure love - the kind you only know in heaven.

Blessed are you, Alice Storr.  Rest in peace.

Where Do Priests Come From? - A Book Review

Bezalel Books has published a charming book written by Elizabeth Ficocelli entitled Where Do Priests Come From?

Great for a family library, perfect for your parish or Catholic school library, this book presents in a positive, gentle way, that priests are normal people with a special job.  Priests wear dark clothes with a white collar (until I read the book, I didn't know it had a special meaning!), but priests have pajamas, too.  Priests help people encounter Jesus in many important ways (sacraments) but priests also might like to fish or golf!  

The book would be a great way to help the reader "break the ice" when talking to a priest.  Getting to know more about one's priest will help develop a friendship between the priest and his young (or not so young) parishioners.

I truly wish I had this book when my sons were younger, so my copy will make the rounds at my local Catholic school.  Then, it'll be going to our diocesan vocations director.  

Where Do Priests Come From? is Elizabeth Ficocelli's 11th book and is endorsed by Fr. Donald Calloway, author of No Turning Back: A Witness to Mercy and by Rev. W. Shawn McKnight, Executive Director of the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations, USCCB.

I am thrilled to see that they have planned more books for this series, Where do Sisters Come From? and Where Do Deacons Come From?.  What a wonderful tool for parents and teachers to introduce the Catholic faith to young learners.  

What to choose? Church or Shopping?

I heard this one EWTN's The World Over program tonight.  Another good reason to look forward to weekend Mass!

Sunday churchgoing makes women happier than shopping

A new study reports that U.S. women who go to church instead of shop on Sundays are generally happier and claims that part of the overall decline in women’s happiness is explained by a decline in religious participation. Further, the study cited the repeal of laws which restrict Sunday business as a reason for the decrease in the level of religious participation.

Dr. Danny Cohen-Zada, an economics professor at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), collaborated in the study with DePaul University economics professor William Sander.

Prof. Cohen-Zada said the researchers found “direct evidence that religious participation has a positive causal effect on a person’s happiness.”

“Furthermore, an important part of the decline in women’s happiness during the last three decades can be explained by decline in religious participation,” he continued.

The repeal of “blue laws,” which bar stores from opening on Sundays, decreases the relative probability of being at minimum “pretty happy” compared to “not happy” by about 17 percent. Women who choose secular activities such as shopping are not happier, according to the study.

The repeal of blue laws was also found to have a negative effect on the level of religious participation of white women and therefore has a negative impact on their happiness.

Respondents did not return to attending church as much even after they noticed their decrease in happiness, researchers surmised, because of a problem of self-control or the need for immediate satisfaction.

"That satisfaction lasts for the moment it’s being consumed and not much longer than that. Religious participation, on the other hand, is not immediate. Instead, it requires persistence over a period of time,"  Cohen-Zada commented.

Other groups whose religious participation was not affected by repeals did not show an observable significant decline in reported happiness.

The researchers analyzed data from the General Social Survey (GSS) and selected respondents who live in states where there was a clear and significant change in the prohibition of retail activity on Sunday. They compared these respondents to those who lived in states where there was no change at all.

Data was limited to Catholics and Protestants because they were the most likely to attend church on Sundays.

A great find!

On the right upper corner of this page, listed under the Mass Readings, is the word Reflection.  Click on it - but not now.  It takes you to a reflection of today's scriptures.

Those meditations come from Presentation Ministries, Cincinnati, Ohio.  They're great.  Trouble is, some are so great, I want to print them out.  Then what do I do with them?  I even thought about a binder, but that'd be too much to haul around.

Great news!  They actually have a printed devotion book that you can subscribe to!  Subscription costs are whatever you can afford.

I received my free sample booklet for Oct/Nov in the mail today.  It's printed 6 times a year and perfectly purse-size or will fit in my Bible cover.  And, since it's mine, I can highlight the parts of the reflections that "grab" me.  The Permit To Publish is from Rev. Joseph R Binzer, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, so we know it's free of doctrinal error.

OK, NOW you can click on Reflections!