What Recompense can I give to the Lord?
Ordination to the Diaconate
Monday, February 23, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Lent Approaching: Be Reconciled to the Lord
Friends in Christ,
I hope this message finds you well. I apologize to those of you who haven’t heard from me in a while. Please know that you are in my prayers and thoughts regularly. Things have been going well here in Rome, but I am struggling to motivate myself to complete my thesis paper. My research is coming very well, and I have been hugely interested and inspired by it. For those of you who don’t know my title is from the Apocalypse of John: Dixit qui sedebat in throno: ecce nova facio omnia, which of course means “The one who sits on the throne says: behold I make all things new”. The paper is on the idea of Liturgical image in the writings of Maximus of Constantinople (also known as the Confessor), and how in his writings this idea is uniquely Christological. If any of you suffer from insomnia when, please God, it gets done I will send it to you. I ask for your prayers that it does indeed get done in a timely manner. Sadly (really not so sadly) there are many things that can and do distract a priest from writing: saying Mass, leading pilgrimages, going on pilgrimages, talking about holy things, praying about the holy things you are reading, etc., and of course there are also those more worldly less fortunate distractions.
Life has been good the first year of my priesthood; I spent the first months as a priest promoting vocations across my diocese and around the world (Sydney World Youth Day). I finally made it to Medjugorje on pilgrimage, said my first Masses of Thanksgiving for my family in Poland, celebrated Midnight Mass for Christmas in the most beautiful Church in all of new England, and just last week I returned from a pilgrimage to the Monastery of Montserrat, where I visited the shrine of our lady of Montserrat, and the city of Barcelona where we visited the tombs of Ss. Eulalia and Raymond of Penyfort, saw the Cross planted on the flagship of the Christian fleets at the Battle of Lepanto, and visited a number of sites tied to the Servant of God Antoni Gaudi—including the famous Church of the Sagrada Familia. My classes have also been extremely interesting and motivating. Now if only I could make short work of this paper.
Anyway the reason I am writing is that I was just sent this link to a video you must see. It was put together by priest friends from my diocese as part of a push to renew the sacrament of Confession. Let me personally testify that although the Eucharist is King when it comes to the sacraments Confession takes a close second place. Of all the sacraments I have celebrated (from both sides of the screen) none has the immediate transformative power to truly set people free from horrible things. As we prepare for lent next week I wanted share this with you and ensure you of my prayers. This and more videos like it can be found on the website:
www.christianfilmbrotherhood.org.
Enjoy! Fr. Ron
I hope this message finds you well. I apologize to those of you who haven’t heard from me in a while. Please know that you are in my prayers and thoughts regularly. Things have been going well here in Rome, but I am struggling to motivate myself to complete my thesis paper. My research is coming very well, and I have been hugely interested and inspired by it. For those of you who don’t know my title is from the Apocalypse of John: Dixit qui sedebat in throno: ecce nova facio omnia, which of course means “The one who sits on the throne says: behold I make all things new”. The paper is on the idea of Liturgical image in the writings of Maximus of Constantinople (also known as the Confessor), and how in his writings this idea is uniquely Christological. If any of you suffer from insomnia when, please God, it gets done I will send it to you. I ask for your prayers that it does indeed get done in a timely manner. Sadly (really not so sadly) there are many things that can and do distract a priest from writing: saying Mass, leading pilgrimages, going on pilgrimages, talking about holy things, praying about the holy things you are reading, etc., and of course there are also those more worldly less fortunate distractions.
Life has been good the first year of my priesthood; I spent the first months as a priest promoting vocations across my diocese and around the world (Sydney World Youth Day). I finally made it to Medjugorje on pilgrimage, said my first Masses of Thanksgiving for my family in Poland, celebrated Midnight Mass for Christmas in the most beautiful Church in all of new England, and just last week I returned from a pilgrimage to the Monastery of Montserrat, where I visited the shrine of our lady of Montserrat, and the city of Barcelona where we visited the tombs of Ss. Eulalia and Raymond of Penyfort, saw the Cross planted on the flagship of the Christian fleets at the Battle of Lepanto, and visited a number of sites tied to the Servant of God Antoni Gaudi—including the famous Church of the Sagrada Familia. My classes have also been extremely interesting and motivating. Now if only I could make short work of this paper.
Anyway the reason I am writing is that I was just sent this link to a video you must see. It was put together by priest friends from my diocese as part of a push to renew the sacrament of Confession. Let me personally testify that although the Eucharist is King when it comes to the sacraments Confession takes a close second place. Of all the sacraments I have celebrated (from both sides of the screen) none has the immediate transformative power to truly set people free from horrible things. As we prepare for lent next week I wanted share this with you and ensure you of my prayers. This and more videos like it can be found on the website:
www.christianfilmbrotherhood.org.
Enjoy! Fr. Ron
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
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