Can You Imagine?

 +JMJ+

"Fratres: obsecro vos ego vinctus in Domino, ut digne ambuletis vocatione, qua vocate estis."     -Ephesians 4:1

"Brethren: I beseech you, I, a prisoner of the Lord, that you might walk worthy of the vocation which you have received." -Ephesians 4:1

What's your vocation? What are you called to do with the life which was given to you?

Perhaps you're called to be a consecrated religious or cleric. Have you considered these options fairly if at all? In my opinion, if you're a girl, you haven't fairly considered the option of religious life as a vocation if you haven't checked out the group called "Imagine Sisters". 

From their website:

"Imagine Sisters is a grassroots, web-based movement to promote young women’s vocations to religious life. Our team is comprised of Sisters, young women, and seminarians from around the United States. We want to show the world the beauty, joy, purpose, and fun of becoming a sister in the 21st century!

The sisters featured on the Imagine Sisters website and films are from orders that have graciously provided our content and support for our movement."

Imagine Sisters isn't just for women to discern the vocation to active religious orders. They're very big on sharing info about contemplative life as well. It's mission is exactly as stated above: "to promote young women's vocations to religious life."  Ladies, I invite you to check out this amazing organization to help you see if religious life is you're calling. May God bless you, and may God bless the Imagine Sisters Movement!

Check it out!!

www.imaginesisters.org

Liturgical Music

On Monday, September 10, 2012 I embarked on retreat with a choral group that I belong to, Kellenberg Memorial High School's Gregorian Consortium. The retreat served a practical purpose because the following morning, the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2012 we went together to Point Lookout Beach to sing at the Town of Hempstead 9/11 Memorial Service. Naturally, as a liturgical choir going on retreat for the first time together, the theme of the retreat was music.

Monday night, we gathered in the retreat house living room and took 5 minutes to write down the names of a few artists whose music reached us emotionally on a personal level and why. We also had to come up with, in lieu of the annual letter of intent, a few reasons why providing liturgical music is important. Then we would all share.

My list was unique, to say the least. The Carpenters, The Bee Gees, L'Angelus, & the choir at St. Ladislaus (my parish). I explained that Karen Carpenter's voice was just enough to make me cry, how the Bee Gees reminded me of my grandfather who I love dearly, and how the power behind the music of L'Angelus was great and how when I think about that band, I see a musical family who seems to have a wonderful example of what Catholic joy is all about.

Then I got to the St. Ladislaus Choir. I said a little something like this:

"So, as some of you may know, I attend Mass that is said in a different rite than all of you. In the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, also affectionately called the Traditional Latin Mass, it's not like the English one because there isn't too much dialogue between the priest and the congregation. It provides a plentiful amount of time to pray and meditate on what is going on at Mass before you because as you follow along you don't have to worry about what to respond and such. It's generally very quiet. However, and this is especially true for Missa Cantata, or Sung High Mass... As for any of you that take Spanish, "cantar" means "to sing". ... Anyway, there is plenty of time for you to be there absorbing the sacrifice that is going on before your very eyes, and to allow the music provided to permeate every fiber of your being. And when you encounter the beautiful music in a way you are encountering the Divine. Because "God is Ultimate Beauty". Art matters because it elevates your spiritual experience by exposing you to the beautiful which is in a sense exposing you to God."

I would like to share that with all of you because many people out there in the Church are involved with or are exposed to Liturgical music ministry in some way shape or form. When we encounter beautiful music, we experience God in a similar way to when we encounter truth and love. Please support those who provide liturgical and religious music to your parishes and in your schools and universities. Whether that be by joining their ranks or making a donation or other contribution to bringing what is beautiful to the faithful.

 Kellenberg Memorial High School Gregorian Consortium

We Are Catholic

Catholic Identity needs to be shared among all those who call themselves Catholic. If you're curious about Catholicism, fallen away from Catholicism or are looking to deepen your Catholic faith, please feel free to contact me, and I can help you find someone or something to aid you on your way! 

How Do You Measure Up?

+JMJ+

Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary 

How does your life measure up to the lives of others? In the race to have the biggest yet thinnest television set on the block for Sunday football, are you leading? Do you have the most expensive car on the street? Are you living in the biggest house in the neighborhood? Is your boat the newest at the marina? Is your spouse in better physical shape than your co-worker's? Are your kids top of their class? Is your relationship with your spouse better than your romantic neighbor's?

We are constantly bombarded with these questions about how we measure up to others in society. We can so easily be distracted by a desire to be on top of everything! This desire stems from our human narcissism which we have thanks to good old Adam and Eve. (if you know what I mean) The real question we should ask ourselves is how are we living comparatively to  the way God wants us to live.

We are not meant to compare ourselves to other people. If we do that, we can be lead astray from the path which God has personally designed for us. But what does that have to do with coveting your neighbors goods and/or wife?

What your neighbor has, according to Christ, comes with a responsibility. That responsibility is to do God's will with it. Naturally, that gets more and more difficult with the more that you have because the more you have, the less likely you are to give ALL of it away. Now, we know that that does not mean give everything you have to charity, it means that you should use everything you have FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF GOD, by using it to care for physically, mentally, and emotionally, the people of God on earth for "whatever ye shall do to the least of these my brethren ye shall have done it unto me."

Think about it the next time you turn green with envy at the sight of someone else's new iPhone or anything else. Rather than dwelling on how you'd like to have that, perhaps you should assess how you're using what you currently have to serve our Lord.