Mary's Children Rosaries

I want to draw you attention to Mary's Children Rosaries.

If you are in the market for a new and unique rosary, Stephanie may have just what you are looking for. I believe she also takes custom orders. I haven't bought one of Stephanie's rosaries but I did have her repair mine that had broken. So, I am confident to say that she does quality work.

Diocese of Little Rock - seminarians

A poster on the Defenders of the Catholic Faith Forum reports that that Diocese of Little Rock will have 23 seminarians this year. This is great news!

The Diocese of Little Rock has also been without a bishop for a year now. Prayers for a good and faithful bishop for the diocese.

When God's law isn't good enough . . .

I just saw this article on CNN.com

Gay bishop plans civil union with partner of 18 years
The article is about Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopalian bishop in New Hampshire.

He and his partner are planning to have separate civil and religious ceremonies to enter into a civil union.

"We need to separate the civil rights from the religious rites,"

"Religious people and religious organizations who are not yet ready to offer the church's or the synagogue's blessings on such unions might be supportive of full civil rights for this country's gay and lesbian citizens"

Really? It seems to me that "bishop" Robinson is saying that God's law is no good for our country. Which unfortunately isn't all that uncommon of a opinion. But it seems like "bishop" Robinson has put himself in a bit of a bind here. By suggesting that civil rights and religious rites be separated he seems to acknowledge that gay marriage would be irreconcilable with Christian doctrines but is advocating turning a blind eye to that fact to going ahead with it in the civil arena. But at the same time plans to have a religious ceremony to bless his civil union.

That's not double speak. That is triple, or maybe even quadruple, speak. Is this really a person who should be intrusted with shepherding the faithful, regardless of denomination or creed?

Luukas update

It's been a while since we've had any updates on Luukas. He continues to show signs of improvement. Thanks be to God for the miracle that is Luukas. If you aren't familiar with his story, Luukas lives in Finland and became very ill soon after birth. At one point his doctors did not expect him to live. His story sparked off a wide spread prayer campaign and those prayers have largely been answered as Luukas pulled through the darkest days and his condition improves all the time. Luukas will have many struggles in life but he has already shown himself to be quite the fighter and an inspiration to many. Click on the label at the bottom of this post to learn more about Luukas. And please, remember him and his family in your prayers.

Latest news from Luukas's mom:

Luukas went to see his eye doctor and his neurologist last week. They were both very happy and say that Luukas has progressed, both physically and with vision. Of course his vision is still very little, but better than before. And of course he is still behind with movements and has muscle tense problems, but there has been progress. A thing that worries me, though, is his eye and head movement that looks like epilepsy and takes place many times per day. Especially that with the development of the brain, epilepsy might also progress.

Luukas was at a course for babies with poor or no vision two weeks ago. It lasted for five full days. It was very nice. They have a swimming pool where we can now go with Luukas on Saturdays.

Luukas will get glasses this week, because he is very near sighted. This is the least of his vision problems, but glasses should improve his seeing anyway. He will look sweet in those round blue glasses Very happy childish looking

Catholic Carnival #188

This weeks Catholic Carnival is up.

Check it out.

One Year

Well, Calling Rome Home was a year old yesterday. Of course, my internet service was down so I wasn't able to say anything about it.

Thank you to those of you who read and comment on this blog despite my erratic posting habits.

Global Living Rosary in Kansas City

Here's another reason to hope that I'm still in the Kansas City area next year. In May 2008 the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and the Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph (MO) will host a Global Living Rosary at Kauffman Stadium.

Global Living Rosary at Kauufman Stadium

I hope I will be able to attend this event. I'll be very interested in seeing this huge rosary with four foot beads mentioned in the "About the Event" section.

Some good articles from Arkansas Catholic

I like to keep up with what's going on in the Diocese of Little Rock so from time to time I check out the Arkansas Catholic website. I think I may go ahead and take out a subscription since the website doesn't include all of the weekly articles. At any rate, there are three really great articles that I wanted to share.

In, RCIA impact felt in Arkansas and beyond, three converts to the Catholic Faith who are making an impact on thier communities and the world by sharing their Faith are profiled.

A minority, but Crossett Catholics witness to their neighbors shows how a small community of Catholics can band together to share the Faith with thier neighbors. It also highlights our need to pray for priestly vocations. The area focused on in this article has many problems with poverty and declining resources. I went on a mission trip there a couple of years ago. The article mentions St. Mary's in McGehee. On the church grounds is a former Franciscan friary that is now used to house mission groups and is where we stayed. I can witness to the problems the area faces with two priests trying to cover four parishes that are seperated by 45 miles. The priests that were there when I visted, both have been reassigned to other parishes, definately faced thier fair share of challenges.

Finally, It's a 'Christian responsibility' to share the faith, discusses how we can strengthen our own Faith by sharing it with others. I'll quote part of this article to get you interested.

Sharing our faith with others helps each of us as well as the Catholic Church. We trace ourselves back to the early Christian communities, who despite the discrimination and persecutions they experienced, continued to attract converts by their community spirit -- their support and care for each other. We need to revive that spirit. We strengthen our own faith when we share it with others. It is also a means of fellowship with one another. Sharing how we have experienced our faith gives us new ideas to help us continue to grow in our faith but it also creates bonds between us and leads to true caring for each other. How many people in today's world crave the support and care that the Christian community can provide?

What I said 5 years ago and how I understand it today.

For no particular reason I pulled up my old LiveJournal, don't ask because you won't get the link :-), and started reading through it. Check out the first part of a post from April 19, 2002

I've thought about this quite a bit lately....and it really bothers me how people are all about how you should go to one church and not another....and how they can be so critical about it I think as long as you are going to worship God it shouldn't matter what church it is. baptist, catholic, methodist, non-denominational...whatever C.

This was during my junior year of college and a few months after going to my first Mass and by that time I'd probably been to Mass three times. It was also at a very low point in my life when I was looking for some sort of affirmation anywhere I could find it. Well actually not "anywhere". Even though I was thinking about church and God I really wasn't looking to God. Even though I knew he was calling me somewhere and I gave in and went to church a few times I think I was for the most part trying to hide from Him.

It took another year or more before I reached a real turning point and really asked God for his mercy and guidance. It was at that point that I at first slowly, and finally enthusiastically, set out on the path He had been calling me down all along. That path led me home to the Catholic Church.

I read those words from 5 years ago now and realize that my thoughts were very "me-centered". "As long as it's somewhere that you feel comfortable and you are able to worship and have fellowship with God", how much more self-centered can you get? Even though I used words like worship and fellowship the "you feel comfortable" is obviously the operative phrase. At the time I didn't feel comfortable at the Southern Baptist church I had been to in town but did feel comfortable at the Catholic Church. At the same time I felt pretty comfortable at the Southern Baptist church that I had spent my teenage years in whenever I went home from college. I remember thinking that whenever I moved again I would just have to shop around for a church that I felt comfortable in.

Sometime after this things started happening at my old church back home that made me start to feel uncomfortable with it and over the course of time led to my ultimate disenfranchisement with Protestantism. I guess while I was spending all that time trying to find something that made me feel good, God was slowly guiding me to where he wanted me. Even though I was almost completely focused on myself God used whatever bit of true desire that I had for Him to draw me to Himself.

I think this is a pretty good example of God's grace working in our lives. Even though I was very self-centered and looking out for myself alone, some part of me still had a desire for God. This small part was there because it had to be. God created man for Himself. God implants on the heart of every person a desire for Himself. It is by God's grace that no matter how loud we shout or how far we run we can never completely drown out or get away from this inherent desire for God by which he calls all mankind to Himself.

meeting update

I had my meeting with Fr. Brian this week. As it turns out, another priest in the Archdiocese sent him the original email suggesting that he contact me. Fr. Brian had the impression that someone else had told the other priest about me. At any rate, I have no idea who sent the email. Since they used my email address that I only use for this blog I have to assume it was a reader. I guess God works in mysterious ways. Actually, that was Fr. Brians response after he asked me if I new this other priest and I told him no.

At any rate, Fr. Brian asked me to take the next year to really try to listen to what God is saying. He suggested that I contact on of the sisters at the center about spiritual direction, take part in the center's discernment group, take a class at the center, and really try to beef up my prayer and sacramental life.

Suffer not the children

By boss has gotten involved with Big Brothers/Big Sisters and invited a couple of us from the office to go to a BBBS luncheon today. The luncheons purpose was to both raise money and encourage volunteers. I had thought about getting involved with BBBS in college but didn't really have the time. So today when they passed around pledge cards asking for donations or a indication of a willingness to volunteer I went ahead and marked that I was interested in becoming a Big Brother and for someone to contact me.

So hopefully I'll soon be able to serve God by helping a child.

Catholic Carnival 117

Catholic Carnival 117 is up. There looks to be a lot of interesting posts this week.

Have a good day at work

Feast of St. Joseph the Worker

God our Father, creator and ruler of the universe,

in every age you call man to develop and

use his gifts for the good of others.

With St. Joseph as our example and guide,

help us to do the work you have asked

and come to the rewards you have promised

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you

and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.