Starting today, join together with the Knights of Columbus and people all over the world in praying a

Novena for Pope Benedict XVI

All Knights of Columbus are encouraged to join in a special novena for Pope Benedict XVI, beginning Divine Mercy Sunday, April 11, and concluding Monday, April 19, the fifth anniversary of the Holy Father’s election in 2005.

We pray for the pope and for his pastoral mission, asking God to protect, strengthen and uplift our beloved Holy Father at this time of considerable challenge.   (KofC Website)

Novena Prayer For Holy Father

PRAYER FOR POPE BENEDICT XVI

Lord, source of eternal life and truth,
give to your shepherd, Benedict, a spirit
of courage and right judgment, a spirit
of knowledge and love. By governing
with fidelity those entrusted to his care,
may he, as successor to the Apostle
Peter and Vicar of Christ, build your
Church into a sacrament of unity, love
and peace for all the world. Amen.

V/ Let us pray for Benedict, the pope.

R/ May the Lord preserve him,
give him a long life,
make him blessed upon the earth,
and not hand him over
to the power of his enemies.

V/ May your hand
be upon your holy servant.

R/ And upon your son,
whom you have anointed.

Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be…

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
In Solidarity With Our Holy Father
Adapted from Manual of Prayers
16000

Larry from Acts of the Apostasy has added this prayer text to the sidebar of his blog and suggests that other Catholic bloggers do the same.

Here is a wordle for Pope Benedict’s message for the 44th World Communications Day, 2010, The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word

And another for Pope Benedict XVI’s message for the 43rd World Communications Day, 2009, New Technologies, New Relationships. Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship

Image Created using http://www.wordle.net/. Images of Wordles are licensed .

This morning I downloaded and started reading Pope Benedict XVI’s new encyclical Caritas in Veritate.

Just to see what would happen, I pasted the introduction and first chapter into wordle.net.

Here is what came out.

Word Cloud of Caritas in Veritate

In 2007 or 2008 my wife and I made a New Year’s resolution to attend Sunday Mass (and feast days) wherever we were and whatever we were doing. Prior to that we were faithful to going to mass every Sunday– except when we were traveling or attending weekend long music festivals or…

Since we have made this resolution, finding masses when we are traveling has become a pleasure and an adventure. Web resources like masstimes.org and diocesan websites make it easy to find the location and mass times of a church nearby to where we are staying. The website for our Archdiocese of Toronto allows you to search for the nearest parish by postal code, which is a very handy feature for travelers.

Today we attended mass for January 1, the feast of Mary the Mother of God at St. Justin the Martyr parish, a large suburban parish just north of Toronto. The homily focused on the apparitions of Mary at Guadalupe, Lourdes and Fatima. In each of these instances Mary appeared in a remote, unremarkable location and asked the visionaries to tell their bishops that She wished a church to be built on that location. The priest  pointed out that if these apparitions occurred in such remote locations that nobody should feel that their heart is too remote to ask Jesus to come live in it.

Another reason I love going to mass at churches away from home is that it helps me reflect upon the idea of the small ‘c’ meaning of ‘catholic’ meaning that we belong to a universal church. Wherever we attend mass we are a part of the sacrifice of Jesus in the Eucharist. The suburban parish we attended today is a very multicultural parish with members from many nations and cultures in the parish community. This also helps remind me that the church is worldwide and universal.   St. Justin’s is a modern church building and the artwork within it is a blend of contemporary and traditional styles. The stained glass windows contained portraits of many saints including my daughter’s favorite, Blessed Kateri Tekawitha and St. Maximillian Kolbe. Like many geeks I have adopted St. Maximillian as a kind of patron of the Internet because of his skillful use of all forms of media of his time to spread the Gospel (sort of like many of us are trying to do with new media).

Speaking of new media, I like many others, have found that the promise of podcasting and social media is in making connections between people and facilitating communities. Having been an active participant in several online community projects, in the podcasting community at large, and within the Catholic online community (or St. Blogs Parish as it were), I have noticed that the Catholic community online has a different and richer definition of community than other online community. This understanding of community is very much rooted in our understanding that we belong to a universal church and that we are united by the sacrifice of Christ in the Eucharist. Several times I have heard Catholic rocker Bryan Murdaugh refer to the celebration of the Eucharist as ‘The original social network’. For me it is enough to know that wherever I am, I can probably find a mass and that I will instantly be connected to the worldwide family of the Catholic Church. I’m told that I overuse the word ‘awesome’ but that is truly awesome!

Join us tomorrow for more reflections produced by great Catholic New Media personalities as we journey through the 12 Days of Christmas.

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2. Go to the Catholic New Media Advent Calendar

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Promo: The Accidental Archaeologist

Top Catholic Songs Itunes list of Unity Awards 2008 – October 25 nominated songs

Song: Sharmane: I Surrender Nominated for UCMVA Song of the Year

Interview with Marc Smith from the Catholic Vocations Podcast

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4. Theme Song: Lost in Christ (©) Bryan Murdaugh

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This year marks the 125th anniversary of my home Parish of St. Margaret’s. Today on Easter Sunday we are hosting the Pilgrimage of The Ark of the New Covenant which is on a walking pilgrimage from the Canadian Martyr’s Shrine to The International Eucharistic Congress in Quebec City in June. There will be an Easter mass concelebrated by Auxilliary Bishops from Toronto and Quebec City, followed by a walking pilgrimage about 7 miles to the Canadian Martyr’s shrine. It will be a very special celebration for our parish. The Eucharistic Congress has a wonderful website and there is ongoing coverage of the pilgrimage and the congress at ECDQ.tv, the new media portal fro the diocese of Quebec. This diocese is doing exciting things with blogs, audio and video on the net to spread the good news. Unfortunately for me, most of the media is in French but it is still an amazing example of what a local diocese can do with new media tools.

I hope to post pictures, and maybe interviews of the event over the next few days.

From http://www.cei2008.ca/en/32

1000 km on foot to Quebec City for the International Eucharistic Congress

The 2008 International Eucharistic Congress invites all media, as well as the public, to join in launching the final pilgrimage of the Ark of the New Covenant. A dozen “portageurs” will begin the 1000 km pilgrimage on Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008 in Midland, Ontario. The pilgrimage will take them to Quebec City in preparation for the most important religious celebration during the city’s 400th anniversary, the 49^th International Eucharistic Congress.

All those interested are cordially invited to join the “portageurs” (those following the Ark) on Easter day. A Eucharistic celebration will take place at St. Margaret Church in Midland, ON, where the Ark’s pilgrimage will start towards the Canadian Martyrs’ Shrine. Once this 5.5 km distance will be covered, there will be a blessing with the relics of the Martyrs in memory of the first Jesuits.

Following is the detailed schedule of activities for Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008 in Midland, Ontario:

• 10:30 a.m. – Arrival of the portageurs and the Ark of the New Covenant at St. Margaret Church, Midland, ON.
• 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon – Easter Eucharistic celebration with Bishop Peter Hundt, Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Toronto & Bishop Pierre-André Fournier, Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Quebec at St. Margaret Church.
• 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Lunch. All are invited to join the portageurs for their meal; however, lunch is not provided.
• 1:00 p.m. – Departure on foot from St. Margaret Church.
• 3:00 p.m. – Arrival at the Martyrs’ Shrine, Blessing and Departure Ceremony.

This historic pilgrimage enhances the liturgical Easter season and the foundation of the Church in Canada. The International Eucharistic Congress website at www.cei2008.ca will allow for people to follow the pilgrimage step by step. After a 64-day journey, the Ark will arrive in Quebec City May 25, 2008 for the Feast of Corpus Christi.

Follow the portageurs online

Many years ago, I was able to spend Easter at Madonna House. Several of us stayed up all night after the Easter Vigil, then made a pre-dawn hike up a mountainous hill to get to Ascension Rock– a large outcropping overlooking the Madawaska River Valley for sunrise. We made a slight miscalculation. The cliff faces west, so we saw the sun rise over the trees we had just hiked through. Nonetheless, at dawn one of our group proclaimed, “Christ has Risen”, and we responded boisterously with the ancient response, “Truly He has risen!”

Sunrise. Such an ordinary event. It happens every day. But any time I’ve taken time to notice and take in a sunrise I’ve always been overcome with awe at the peace and beauty of the moment. It is commonplace and ordinary but always miraculous.

So too is this miracle we celebrate today. Jesus Christ has died and he is risen. He has died for us all, and overcome death to give us the same gift. Miraculous indeed. The Greatest of Miracles. But we commemorate this miracle every Easter, every Sunday. We must be every mindful that we never take this miracle for granted, and treat it as commonplace.

Since she was four, our daughter has attended Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, also known as the Atrium at our home Parish of St. Margaret’s in Midland, Ontario. My daughter has enjoyed the hands-on and self directed approach to learning about our faith, and our entire family’s faith experience has been enriched by the discussions and questions we have shared following her classes at the Atrium. The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, was founded in 1954 as a way to teach children the Gospel using the methods of Maria Montessori. I formerly taught in a Montessori school so this was of interest to me. There are currently only 28 parishes in Canada using the Atrium program (including some Anglican and Lutheran churches), so we are certainly fortunate to have such a good program for catechism in our home parish.