Over at the Son Rise Morning Show Blog, I’ve jumped on the Catholic blogwagon by listing what I think are the Top Ten Most Fascinating Catholics of 2008. Here’s an excerpt:
1. Pope Benedict XVI:Inexplicably charitable in his decimation of the dictatorship of relativism, I’m still waiting for this guy to disappoint me. His visit to the United States this year put the Leader of the Free World in schoolboy mode. He’s reviving interest in liturgy, Scripture, and the Church Fathers. I heart my German Shepherd.
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5. Chase Hilgenbrinck: It’s not the kind of thing you hear about every day: a Major League Soccer star leaves a professional athletic career to start seminary, but that’s exactly what this young man did. After a successful soccer career in Latin America, he was traded to the New England Revolution. However, after less than a year with the Revolution, he left it all to pursue a vocation to the priesthood. We’re excited to hear about what God does with this young man.
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9. Tim Russert: When Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden argued on “Meet the Press” that the Catholic Church has held ambiguous views on abortion through the centuries, I’m sure I wasn’t alone in wishing that Tim Russert were still alive to put a holy smack down on them. Among political journalists, he had no equal. He had a knack for sifting through jargon and getting the truth out of politicians, which is a significantly more daunting task that most people realize. Requiescat in Pace.
For the full list, click here. Please feel free to add your own nominations in the combox below…
“The saints must be honored as friends of Christ and children and heirs of God, as John the theologian and evangelist says: ‘But as many as received him, he gave them the power to be made the sons of God….’ Let us carefully observe the manner of life of all the apostles, martyrs, ascetics and just men who announced the coming of the Lord. And let us emulate their faith, charity, hope, zeal, life, patience under suffering, and perseverance unto death, so that we may also share their crowns of glory.”
Catholic author and Cincinnati resident Tammy Bundy has some thoughts on last week’s power outage, which made many of you unable to read Merely Catholic for a few days:
In Genesis, we are told God said, “‘Let there be light’. And then there was light”.
For some of us last week, it was not so simple…
Over the next few days without electricity, I was not able to work on my computer, cook or wash. We had our moments of impatience and, like so many others, would have to throw out any semblance of food in our once cold refrigerator. But what I was able to do more than made up for what we lacked due to no electricity. Because what I was able to do was talk to people in my life that I hadn’t had the time — or more correctly –taken the time to talk to in quite a while.
Deacon Conrad Kolis preached a great homily at St. James of the Valley yesterday to a similar effect. He reminded us that our first response in these kinds of situations should be gratitude for the hard work of the people who help get things back to normal.
Speaking of normal, we Swaims got our electricity back at about 8pm on Friday. I was a little bummed that I don’t have an excuse to grill anymore…
If you’re not familiar, it’s a 40 day prayer vigil in front of abortion clinics. This time around, Cincinnati has coordinated its campaign to coincide with dozens of other cities, cloaking the abortion issue in a steady stream of prayer. If you sign up for an hour, all you have to do is engage in peaceful prayer in front of the clinic in Mt. Auburn. Holy Name Church is just up the street, too, which is where the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants meets on Saturday mornings.
If you want to get involved in this year’s 40 Days for Life campaign, check out their website: 40daysforlife.com/cincinnati.
Today is the feast of St. Peter Claver, who shared the faith with some 300,000 recipients who were willing to alter their lives because of it. As a missionary, yea, the “slave of the slaves,” he traveled from Spain to Colombia to advocate better working conditions and more dignity for the African slaves that were being mistreated by cruel European colonists. Because of his tireless advocacy of justice, he has been recognized as the patron saint of African-Americans.
Many of our readers probably know that there is actually a St. Peter Claver school in Over the Rhine, founded in part by the late Fr. Al Lauer, the former pastor of Old St. Mary’s who is frequently heard on Sacred Heart Radio.
This being a special day for those students, teachers, and administrators at St. Peter Claver, we offer this prayer, taken from the St. Peter Claver website.:
Heavenly Father, you conferred on St. Peter
Claver a supernatural gift of love. Through
his intercession we pray for the young men
entrusted to St. Peter Claver Latin School to
be transformed by Jesus into strong Christian
leaders, husbands and fathers. May the Holy
Spirit working in and through parents, students
and faculty revitalize the City of Cincinnati and
the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood and beyond.
We give you praise and thanksgiving for
inspiring our many generous benefactors
and volunteers and we ask you to grant
their special intentions.
Grant eternal rest to Fr. Al and Fr. Charles.
Let perpetual light shine upon them.
Glory be to the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.
St. Peter Claver, pray for us.
St. Martin de Porres, pray for us.
St. Juan Diego, pray for us.
St. Joseph, pray for us.
Fr. Charles, pray for us.
Fr. Al Lauer, pray for us.
A year ago today, September 4, 2007, the first Son Rise Morning Show that I ever produced hit the airwaves. Since that fateful day, I’ve been blown away at the blessings that have resulted. In addition to learning a ton about my faith (most of it between 4am and 6am), I’ve been amazed at the sorts of people that have returned my calls. I’ve developed friendships with some truly extraordinary folks, and have had opportunities I’d never imagined I’d have. Oddly enough, through the Son Rise Morning Show, I became associated with this blog.
I think the most mind-blowing opportunity I’ve gotten to this point is the fact that for the first anniversary of the show, the man that Pope John Paul II appointed to be in charge of communications for the entire Catholic Church is coming to speak. John Cardinal Foley is now the guy in charge of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, who take care of the most important holy sites in Christianity. Not to mention the fact that he’ll likely play a part in electing the next pope…
His full (and boy, do I mean FULL) bio is at the Knights’ website.
That being said, if anyone else wants to be a part of this, they’re still taking registrations until September 12 at sacredheartradio.com for the banquet, which takes place October 2. If you’re going, drop me a note, and we’ll be sure to meet up.
The next “Credo: I Believe” event has been scheduled for September 26-28 at Moeller high school. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the event, it involves music, prayer, and adoration of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. There was a HUGE turnout for the last one, and we should expect an even bigger crowd this time around.
For those of you who missed this past year’s Catholic Men’s Conference (and those of you who didn’t and want to revisit it), the podcast of Tarek Saab’s outstanding talk delivered at “Answer the Call” is now online and available for download. Check it out at catholicmentoday.org, along with tons of other great downloadable talks tailored, as the name suggests, to today’s Catholic men.
This is a blog celebrating the Catholic Church, primarily in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. With St. Augustine of Hippo, we say, “We are an Easter people, and alleluia is our song.” As Catholic disciples of “Christ Our Hope,” the contributors to this blog strive to shed light on the way God is active and alive in the world today, especially in the Church.
We take the Church seriously, but not ourselves. We are merely Catholics and proud to proclaim it with this positive blog designed to interest and inspire our fellow faithful.
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