Journeying With The Saints

Today's readings are from Notebook 2, numbers 565-567.

Sister Faustina writes today about the respect she wants the sisters to give their Superior. So, we are going to talk about worship, praise, respect, and honor. Catholics get accused pretty frequently of giving too much honor and respect to the Pope, the Saints, and Mary. People tell us that we worship them. We are going to discuss some big theological words: Dulia, Hyperdulia, and Latria.

Today's readings are from Notebook 2, numbers 559-564.

Sister Faustina has a vision of the building that is to house her new convent. The problem is that it's a run-down, crumbling building. She's a little disappointed. I share what it's like to visit the ruins of once-glorious Catholic Churches here in Turkey. Surprisingly, it doesn't cause me to despair. I try to explain why.

Today's readings are from Notebook 2, numbers 554-558.

This is the last day of looking at how Sister Faustina wants the new Congregation to function. I compare and contrast the Religious life with the life of a lay person. There are some things Religious do that lay people shouldn't do, or shouldn't do, at least, to the same extreme degree. There are some things they do, however, that we should most definitely try to imitate.

Today's readings are from Notebook 2, numbers 549-553.

We are continuing on today with reading about how Sister Faustina's new Congregation will operate. Don't let this be dry readings to you. There are a lot of good things to reflect upon in these words. I want to focus on what she has to say about work and silence. My grandfather always told me to embrace work and he was a good example of that for me. And something I have to work on is learning to be silent.

Today's readings are from Notebook 2, numbers 542-548.

Sister Faustina is laying out how the new Congregation will work. We made be tempted to see these readings as not really pertaining to our lives. I think, though, that it is important to understand and see exactly what the Religious give up for Christ. If we are looking for Christianity to be cushy or comfy, we are misguided and don't understand that our lives as Christians should not be worldly.

This week we are reading the 18th number from "Way to Inner Peace." This is the last reading in the happiness section. Bishop Sheen is going to show us how many of us react when we are faced with the reality that we are to blame, many times, if our life isn't going well. Often times, when we realize this we rebel even more against decency and the moral life. The prodigal son, though, shows us the correct response--a return to the father with a contrite heart.

Three key points: Reformation, conscience, and restoration.

Milestone Day! We are a third of the way through the year!

Today's readings are from Notebook 2, numbers 536-541.

Sister Faustina is envisioning what the new Congregation will look like. Our Religious do so much good in the world and I share a story of an atheist that ended up converting to Catholicism. One of the reasons was because of the witness of Religious.

Here is the interview with him.

https://catholicpilgrim.net/?p=1866

Today's readings are from Notebook 2, numbers 530-535.

The podcast is a little longer today because we will be saying a prayer for our priests at the end. Christ tells Sister Faustina to pray for the souls of priests and I thought it would be a good idea for us to pray for them, as well.

Today's readings are from Notebook 2, numbers 525-529.

The life of a saint is filled with ups and downs, highs and lows. There are moments of great feelings of joy; there are moments of dryness. If we are expecting our faith life to be full of nothing but highs, we will be disappointed and tempted to walk away from the faith. We must realize that the dry points may be times of fortification. Like Sister Faustina, we need to just keep going.

We start Notebook Two today!

Today's readings are from Notebook 2, numbers 522-524.

It will be a short reading today. Notebook Two starts with a beautiful short poem and I will read it and then let you reflect on its message of mercy. It's a great way to start this next chapter.