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The Dominican friars of the Western province ordained 3 priests this year. They ordain deacons in September, so there's nothing to report on that front at the moment. On a side note, the ordaining prelate was Bishop Steven Maekawa, OP, himself a member of the Western Province. He was consecrated the bishop of Fairbanks, AK in October 2023. Of the Fairbanks diocese, Wikipedia says: "As of 2023, the Diocese of Fairbanks had 46 parishes and missions, with 14 priests, to serve 11,876 Catholics, in an area of 409,849 square miles (1,061,500 km2). It is geographically the largest diocese in the United States." Suffice it to say, Bishop Maekawa has his hands full, but he made time to return to San Francisco to ordain his brothers as priests.

The archdiocese of Chicago, IL ordained 5 priests, 2 transitional deacons, and 12 permanent deacons this year. The diocese of Joliet, IL ordained 4 priests and 1 transitional deacon this year. No word on permanent deacons.

Wikipedia says: "If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again" (1922) is a popular gospel song written by John Whitfield "Whit" Vaughan (1879–1945), as a tribute to his own mother, Clara Beady Burgess-Vaughan. The words are based on a text by James Rowe, an English settler living in Georgia during the early twentieth century. A 1934 recording of the song by Thomas A. Dorsey was selected in 2007 by the United States' National Recording Preservation Board for preservation in the National Recording Registry.

The word “ascension” means to move upward, to be lifted up. In this case, the “ascension” refers to Jesus’ ascent as he was lifted up into heaven at the end of his earthly ministry in the midst of his followers. This event was commonly assumed to have occurred upon the Mount of Olives 40 days following Jesus’ resurrection after he had made many appearances to his followers. It should be noted that the Ascension is one of the few affirmations we make about Jesus’ life in our ancient creeds. In the Nicene Creed, we proclaim that Jesus, “ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” The Ascension has also been observed universally by the Church since at least the 4th century and it ushers the Church into Pentecost Sunday, when the Church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit. One of the things about the liturgical year and worship, is that if one pays attention to the prayers and readings throughout the church year, one can learn and experience all the central teachings of the Christian faith. For instance, the liturgy of the Eucharistic prayer opens with a dialogue that begins with the words, “The Lord be with you… And with your spirit.” The prayer continues with the invitation to those gathered to “Lift up your hearts.” Clergy are taught in seminary to physically lift their arms and hands upward during this prayer in order to convey tangibly and physically this sense of lifting up in a posture of supplication. The people then respond, “We lift them up to the Lord.” The sursum corda ends with giving thanks to God and the prayer then moves into retelling salvation history with worship and thanksgiving to God until the invitation to receive Communion. The goal of this portion of the ancient liturgy is to participate in, essentially, an ascension of the heart, by intentionally and prayerfully lifting up our hearts to God in faith, love, and joy. From a spiritual standpoint, this is a moment to pause and bring our awareness into God’s presence. In that sense, we are called to ascend to God, just as Jesus ascended to God, by lifting up our hearts, our souls, and our deepest selves to God. In this way, our prayer reminds us that the Eucharist is not just about the fact that Jesus descended to the earth to come to us, nor did Jesus merely ascend into heaven, but that he ascended in order to draw us all to God because we too are called to ascend in heart, body, and mind to the Lord. In Christ, by faith through grace, we learn that ascension is a joint effort! In fact, not only is the Eucharistic celebration a joint effort of both descension and ascension, but our entire spiritual journey is a joint effort that involves God coming to us and our responding and coming to God, descending and ascending together, with God working in us and us working with God. In this way, heaven and earth are joined together for the work of God’s Kingdom. When we follow Jesus and experience true ascension, there is a clear and gracious result. Luke’s Gospel account illustrates that result in our reading. Following Christ’s ascension, the text reveals that the disciples experienced three things: “worship,” “great joy,” and “blessing.” This is the same pattern of the Eucharistic prayer, and this is the pattern of the spiritual life. When we ascend and lift up our hearts to God, we too are filled with God’s life-giving, praise, worship, blessing, and joy! Of course, we are called to ascend and lift our hearts to God not only on Sunday mornings or during the Eucharistic prayer, but continually and throughout our days. If we want to experience more joy in life, as well as praise and blessing, then we can lift up our hearts to God constantly in moments of ascension. Far from being an obscure event then, ascension can be a most practical reminder of how we might live out and practice our faith regularly, knowing that God has come to us and we have been called to come to God. Jesus’ work on earth is now complete, but the task of bearing witness to Him and making disciples is never done, not until he returns at the end of time. Clothed with the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Apostles and disciples of Jesus began to preach and teach about him to Jews and to Gentiles. They began to do what the Lord Jesus asked them to do: bear witness and make disciples. That task is not just theirs; it belongs to all of us.

My body, my choice is strained logic. In order for a bodily rights argument to be analogous to abortion, the hypothetical needs to include the following five elements: If you refuse bodily donation, someone else will die. You chose to risk making this person’s life depend on you. No one else can save this person. Your bodily donation is temporary. Your refusal means actively killing this person, not just neglecting to save him.

You don’t have to be Christian to be pro-life / anti-abortion. Pro-life is fundamentally logical.

just trying to enrich your post in my own little way...

The Hag (Merle Haggard) wrote and sings "Mama's Prayers" in which he narrates examples of being saved from dangerous situations, which he attributes to his mother's prayers. He did do time in San Quentin, so these examples are probably true.

The Benedictine monks at St. Joseph Abbey in Louisiana are having a monastic discernment immersion experience July 1-14. https://www.saintjosephabbey.com/comeandsee

I know I've posted several other recordings by Sister Shirley Caesar, but I just think she's one of the best Gospel singers in the nation. This is "Loose That Man." It involves "an old mother," meaning 'a church mother,' not necessarily the mother of the man referenced. What impresses me about this song, and also about "Satan, We're Gonna Tear Your Kingdom Down" (page 6 of this thread, 4th song down), is that these women feel fully confident to confront the devil directly, and tell him what to do, too! That takes some real faith. She sets the context at the beginning and then starts singing.

Yes, I tend to give my own directees a number of suggestions of things to try, write about, pray over, etc. I expect them to determine which they will try, which actually work for them, and so forth. We will discuss all of this but I am a resource and the actual decisions re which ideas to use or keep belong to the directee. This is by far the dominant approach to spiritual direction today. Again, the terms direction and director in spiritual direction have less to do with telling someone what to do than they do with assisting the person to continue in the right direction in their growth toward a mature and authentic humanity in communion with God. Best, Sister Laurel

Actually, the director for my last retreat explicitly told me not to use all the ideas he proposed to me (because it wozuld have been way to much to fit into the schedule) but to decide for myself which ones to follow and which ones to leave out. But different directors might have different approaches. (:

"Hold Fast to the Right" was written in 1906 by James D. Vaughn; the Carter Family (including June's mother, Maybelle Addington Carter) recorded it in 1938; Johnny & June Carter Cash recorded it in 2004, when both of them were old, for a Carter Family tribute album; their son, John Carter Cash produced the album. The song is a mother's advice to her son as he is about to leave the family home and go out into the world.

G1.4 Je vous salut Marie, pleine de grâce, le Seigneur est avec vous, vous êtes bénie entres toutes les femmes et Jésus, le fruit de vos entrailles est béni. Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu, priez pour nous pécheurs, maintenant et a l'heure de notre mort. Amen

In the Country tradition and in the Gospel tradition, "Mama" gets a lot of respect. A mother's prayers are thought to be more effective, according to the folk tradition And Mother's Day is coming up. So I figure to post a Gospel song about mothers - or grandmothers - every day this week, but keep in mind that everyone is welcome to post their own songs, too! This is George Jones, known as The Possum, singing "When Mama Sang, the Angels Stopped to Listen." It was written by Danny Walls and Bob Warren. This is pure Old School Country, nothing very unique or special about it, just a good example of that special place that Mama holds in Country & Gospel music.

J'aime ça

I don't know if obliged is the word I would use. I would certainly share how I had discerned in the situation and the decision I made. I expect directees to do the same with me. I don't see how this would be a waste of anyone's time since it furthers the aim of spiritual direction, namely, to accompany a directee in their growth, and to assist them in negotiating the decisions they must make in their journey with, in, and towards God. Since the client's ongoing moral and spiritual development and growth in virtue is the very purpose of spiritual direction, and since the capacity to make informed and mature choices or decisions is something SD fosters as part of that growth, no one's time is wasted at all. All of this assists a directee/client in attending to life goals and direction. Of course, if the model of SD one is using sees the director as a superior who commands obedience in the narrower sense of "doing what one is told to do", then a client simply not doing what they are told will also tend to cause SD to be seen as a waste of time. All my best, Sister Laurel.

Je crois en Dieu, le Père tout puissant, Créateur du ciel et de la terre. Et en son Fils unique, Jésus Christ, Son Fils unique, notre Seigneur; Qui a été conçu du Saint Esprit, né de la Vierge Marie, a souffert sous ponce Pilate, a été crucifié, est mort et a été enseveli, est descendu aux enfers, le troisième jours est ressucité des morts, est monté au cieux, est assis a la droite de Dieu, le Père tout puissant, d'où il viendra jugé les vivants et les morts. Je crois en l'Esprit Saint, à la sainte Église catholique, à la communion des Saints, à la rémission des péchers, à la réssurection de la chair, à la vie éternelle. Amen JE CROIS EN DIEU

G1.3 Je vous salut Marie, pleine de grâce, le Seigneur est avec vous, vous êtes bénie entre toutes les femmes et Jésus, le fruit de vos entrailles est béni. Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu, priez pour nous pécheurs, maintenant et a l'heure de notre mort. Amen

Would you be obliged to tell the a spiritual director that you wouldn't be following this advice and why. I think you would or else it would be a waste of everyone's time. But isn't the idea to guide you towards your goal and explore maybe exactly what your goal is. Not that I know that much about it

On January 8th, I posted "Something That the World Didn't Give Me" by the bluegrass group The Marshall Family. Today's song is basically the same message but delivered by Sister Shirley Caesar in a completely different style. She preaches a little bit between verses and choruses, too. And since today's Gospel reading includes "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete," I thought it appropriate to post this song, even if it overlaps with the January 8th post. It would be a fun exercise to listen to one and then the other for the sake of comparison - the Marshall Family is on page 5, third from the bottom.

^ BINGO! ^

Spiritual directors today tend to reject the notion that they "direct" others. They don't. They accompany and guide and help a person maintain a God-focused direction in their lives, but they don't direct. This is the main reason SD's today will call themselves accompanists or guides, for instance. Obedience has a couple of meanings, the most foundational being to hearken, that is, to be attentive (listen) and responsive to someone or something. One listens and listens deeply if one is obedient. Only secondarily, and to a much lesser degree is obedience bound up with "doing what one is told". As a consecrated hermit I have both superiors and a spiritual director. I owe my superiors a somewhat different kind of obedience than I do my SD. I listen to both of course, and I pray about whatever they say, request, or suggest is important. However, my SD does NOT tell me what to do and I do not owe her obedience in this sense of the term. A legitimate superior sometimes does actually tell me what to do in a certain situation. Because she is experienced in the ways of a vow of religious obedience herself, and because she knows me well and knows what is best for me and my vocation, and because I am similarly vowed, she is able to exercise what is called today, the ministry of authority in my regard. She can require me to do x or y. But let me point out that it is actually very rare that a legitimate superior exercises her authority in this way. Still, this is not a form of authority a spiritual director as SD has. Neither does a directee owe the director this kind of obedience. There is something seductive about owing another person "obedience" in this sense. I continue to be surprised that folks seem to want to give a spiritual director such authority (I'm less surprised some untrained directors want to take it!). Still, as someone who does spiritual direction (accompaniment) myself, I recognize this tendency is very real and to be avoided except by those who have been formally called to (and prepared for) a vow of religious obedience and/or to exercising the ministry of authority as a legitimate superior. The reason is significant: when one is not vowed in this way or prepared to assume this leadership role, simply doing what a director tells one can be infantilizing. For the director, requiring or commanding obedience in this sense can be a shortcut to actually listening to the directee or loving them sufficiently to empower their independence; it also can stem from pride (arrogance) and a misplaced sense of power or authority.

Their precepts are a matter of faith although they will never admit it.