Pray for our Priests this Divine Mercy Sunday

O Jesus, I pray
For Your faithful and fervent priests;
For Your unfaithful and tepid priests;
For Your priests laboring at home or abroad
in distant mission fields;
For Your tempted Priests;
For Your lonely and desolate Priests;
For Your imprisoned and Martyred Priests;
For Your dying Priests;
For the souls of your Priests in Purgatory.

But above all I recommend to You the Priests dearest to me;
The Priest who baptized me;
The Priests who have absolved me from my sins;
The Priests at whose Masses I assisted
and who gave me Your Body and Blood
in Holy Communion;
The Priest who taught and instructed me;
And also the Priest who may have
wounded or hurt me.

All the Priests to whom I am indebted to,
in any other way, I pray;
O Jesus, keep them close to Your Heart,
And bless them abundantly
In time and in Eternity~
AMEN

Now That Lent is Over - A Meme

Normal Homeschool Day :-)

My dearest friend, Esther, homeschooling, and my partner for the project Vatican Seeking Spiritual Moms for Priests tagged me for this soon-to-be fun meme.



Here are the rules...
1. When tagged place the name and URL on your blog.
2. Post rules on your blog.
3. Write 7 non-important things/habit/quirks about yourself.
4. Name 7 of your favorite blogs.
5. Send an email/comment on their blog letting them know they have been tagged.



The 7 non-important things/habit/quirks:
1. I tell my little ones, "Let's see who will sleep first." They tell me in the morning that I started snoring in 3 seconds. Ha ha ha...
2. I kiss Sunny, Cy's pet bird, too much he gets so tired of it that he'll peck on me so hard and I'll have to put him back to his cage, or yell, "CY!", for Cy to come and get him.
3. I laugh over silly things and the kids will say, "Mom!", meaning "enough already."
4. I have the tendency to screech when I cantor at church, no matter how nicely I practice at home.
5. I stick my tongue out at my husband when I get embarrassed and it is usually followed by giggles.
6. I start the car without the kids and they come running to it.
7. I notice I make several signs of the cross before leaving the house because I forget a few things and I have to go back and get them.



My Seven Favorite Blogs:

A View From the Pews

Therese's Roses

Veni Sancte Spiritus

Building the Ark

Scorpion Stalking Duck

In God's Company

St. Robert Bellarmine



This is fun, amazingly! So, thank you to my dear spiritual sister, Esther! :-)

Mission of the priests

The mission of the priest is to save souls.
But he cannot do this effectively
unless he has helpers.
Now woman, by reason of her deeply religious nature
and her power over man,
is ideally suited for this task.
She should, therefore, joyfully
and methodically cooperate with the clergy
in the noble task of extending
Christ's Kingdom on earth.

Rev. James Alberione

Two New Monsignori Announced here at Jackie's place,

Catholic Mom of 10

A Joyful Resurrection!

Picture sent by Kathy Recicar

Alleluia!

To the High Priest

Jesus Christ

Risen from the dead

Truly alive and set free

man from the bondage of sin

now reigning at the right hand of the Father

watching us with loving eyes

interceding

longing

and waiting

for all of us

Alleluia!

HAPPY EASTER TO ONE AND ALL!

Pray for Bishop Larry Silva

Please say a special prayer for our dear bishop, Bishop Larry Silva. I noticed that he is losing weight these days and the arch on his back has become prominent. He's been so busy presiding over Holy Mass more frequently now at the Cathedral, and at other parishes and usually comes unannounced.

Pray for our Priests this Holy Week

Picture of UST - Alumni Priests from

Fr. Nonie D.'s Corner

John of The Jesus Walk wrote this beautiful prayer for our priests.

Let us join him in praying it for our priests, particularly this Holy Week as they busy themselves with preparations for the Easter Triduum.

A Prayer for Priests

Lord Jesus, we your people pray to You for our priests. You have given them to us for our needs. We pray for them in their needs.

We know that You have made them priests in the likeness of Your own priesthood. You have consecrated them, set them aside, anointed them, filled them with the Holy Spirit, appointed them to teach, to preach, to minister, to console, to forgive, and to feed us with Your Body and Blood.

Yet we know, too, that they are one with us and share our human weaknesses. We know too that they are tempted to sin and discouragement as we are, needing to be ministered to, as do we, to be consoled and forgive, as do we. Indeed, we thank You for choosing them from among us, so that they understand us as we understand them, suffer with us and rejoice with us, worry with us and trust with us, share our beings, our lives, our faith.

We ask that You give them this day the gift You gave Your chosen ones on the way to Emmaus: Your presence in their hearts, Your holiness in their souls, Your joy in their spirits. And let them see You face to face in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread.

We pray to You, O Lord, through Mary the Mother of all priests, for Your priests and for ours. Amen.

Written by John Cardinal O’Connor

Pray for archbishop of Iraq killed by kidnappers

We Belong to the Lord has a good coverage on the story of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, Archbishop of Iraq who was kidnapped on February 29. Let us pray for the soul of this archbishop that it may rise to the heavenly abode and there, in the company of angels and saints, praise and worship our God with great joy.

We pray for the many Chrisitians in all parts of the world who proclaim the gospel of Christ. May they be encompassed by angels to guard and protect them. We pray that St. Michael will be their defender and shield.

We pray for the conversion of the kidnappers and those who wish to hurt our brothers and sisters propagating the Good News.

Thank you for being joyful with us

My special thanks to Esther for spreading the news on TJ's "interview" with Fr. Peter Dumag, Vicar for Vocations. On a more serious note, priests share with us that someone had invited them or asked them if they would consider the priestly vocation before embracing the call.

I want to thank friends and family who laughed with us, most especially, my husband's mother whom I love so dearly.

Thank you to fellow bloggers who added icing to the cake by leaving comments in the combox:

Ed of In God's Comapany

Fr. John Speekman at Homilies and Reflections from Australia

Esther in A Catholic Mom in Hawaii

Domini sumus at We Belong to the Lord

Kimberly from Catholic Family Vignettes

Veritas at Poetry, Prayer, and Praise

Deb in Ukok's Place

Another Amazing Event - continued

When we got to the 5th floor, I met my favorite young priest, Fr. Paul Li. I told him about TJ and sure enough, we found ourselves laughing again, just like we did when he helped me put together an anual Mass for the homeschoolers last year.

So there we were, seated at a round table: Fr. Peter, TJ, my other children and I. We had all smiles on our faces, especially TJ. One thing I noticed about him was he had this most comfortable, joyful and peaceful demeanor, but of course, being his mother, I won't give it any meaning. :-)

Fr. Peter had an application form on the table and jotted down information which the siblings mostly answered for TJ, and yes, with smiles and giggles. The questions in the back made most of us laugh:

Are you suffering from mental illness?
Have you seen a psychiatrist?
Are you taking any prescribed medications?
Do you have any debts?
If so, how much do you owe?

HA HA HA...

Oh what joy! What joy! But soon we had to go. 3 of my children left a few minutes early to prepare and put their albs on to serve as acolytes for the 12 noon Mass.

In many occasions, the family, except TJ, served at various Masses. My husband and I sang with the cathedral's choir and sometimes cantored while the 4 children altar served. Soon, he will be joining the team.

Thinking of TJ serving at Mass is making all of us nervous. He's the baby of the family, and in some ways, still acts like one. This child still remains in the metaphysical stage where his connection with God is in the wonder and awe. Full of wonder and awe for God and his creation, yes, that is TJ. He also possesses a natural ability to make us laugh with his simple siliness.

TJ will receive his first Sacrament of Reconciliation this Saturday, March 15. His God-chosen godfather will be there to support him (a beautiful thing!). His First Holy Communion will take place on Sunday, March 30.

Fr. Peter, we thank you! The seed has been planted. It is a day we will not forget.

I was encouraged by Fr. Peter to continue nurturing the call. The priesthood may very well be TJ's vocation, but being his mother, I won't overly give it meaning. I will just have to occasionally talk about this joyful interview with friends and family. That's all. :-)

As for the nurturing part, I will continue to take him to daily Mass with his siblings, teach him the richness of our faith as best I can, give him lots of hugs and kisses and affirmation, and the rest is God's.

Pray for the repose of Bishop Dunn

Rt Rev Kevin John Dunn RIP, Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle

Please pray for the eternal repose of Bishop Dunn.

Read more about this at Ukok's Place. Thank you!

Another Amazing Event

Going back to Friday...

Just before going in the church for the 12 noon Mass, my son and I met Fr. Peter Dumag. He shook my son's hand and introduced himself and said, "Would you like to become a priest?" To which my son replied, "Yes!" (with little jumps of joy). Fr. Peter continued on to say, "I invite you to come to my office to fill in an application form. You will be my youngest prospect." (You must know that this priest has a pretty good sense of humor).

During Mass, I found my son looking preoccupied, and pretty well-behaved. Just before consecration he came up to me and asked, "Mom, where is Father's office?" I couldn't make out what he was saying, so I said, "Ask me after Mass." He said, "Ok, Mom."

Right after Mass, just outside of the cathedral, our friend, Jack, told my son that Fr. Peter's office is on the fifth floor of the chancery building. My son must have asked me about 10 times to go up to the fifth floor to see this priest.

I called his office to see if he was in and my son spoke with him. My son has an appointment to see the Vicar for Vocations on Wednesday this week, at 11:30 a.m.!

My son's name is TJ and he is six years of age! And he is excitedly counting the days!

Amazing indeed! :-)

Amazing events!

THE most amazing thing happened yesterday, actually, amazing things! Our friends, Esther and Joey, came to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace for Stations of the Cross, and for Esther and me to sign a letter to Bishop Larry that we both wrote together. We are requesting Bishop Silva to support us in our endeavor to find more women in our diocese to spiritually adopt our priests and seminarians.

After we signed the letter, Esther said that we go see the Bishop. Gulp! Doesn't she know that one has to make an appointment ahead of time to see a bishop? Ha ha ha... That friend of mine, ours actually! She is one petite lady, but my gosh, what guts she possesses!

Anyway, it was a good try. Though Bishop Silva was unavailable, the amazing thing was that we saw the right people who could help us. Did I say Vicar General Fr. Marc Alexander knows Esther? Yes sireee! He, Fr. Mark Alexander, and Fr. Pascual are going to post our announcement in our major catholic website and major newsletter circulated to priests and important people in the diocese. Yipeeee!!! God wants us to pray for his priests and seminarians! (la la la...)

I hope you will be back for another amazing thing that happened that day.

David considered priesthood when someone asked

David Soares

picture from Hawaii Catholic Herald

Meet David Soares, 21, a Big Island resident and

St. Joseph, Hilo, parishioner.

He recently began studies for the priesthood at

Mount Angel Seminary and Abbey at Saint Benedict, Ore.,

with another new seminarian for the Diocese of Honolulu,

Kauai boy EJ Resinto.

Read this article by Ann Weaver of Hawaii Catholic Herald.

Please join us in praying for David and our other seminarians.

More Awesome Pictures

Thank you, Kathy Recicar!

Please Pray for Fr. Gallagher

Please pray Fr. Brian Gallagher.

More on this at Leticia's blog. And thank you Esther

for letting us know about this.