Repent

Holy Men and Women of the Past who Inspire us Today

Here is my Bulletin Article for this week:
I recently was asked by a group of youth what I was doing personally for the Year of Faith that the Church has declared this year to be. I answered that one of the things that I have been doing is attending a class on Saturday mornings which the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has been putting on for priests called “Renewal of Faith”, which explores what the Church actually teaches about faith and how we can grow deeper in our faith. I also mentioned to the youth that I don’t necessarily enjoy sitting in a classroom, but every time that I go to one of these sessions, I learn so much more about God, and I am always grateful that I have gone.

 This comes back to that first question though, what are you doing for the Year of Faith? I hope that many of you have or are in the midst of reading Matthew Kelly’s Rediscover Catholicism book, which will help you grow in your faith. I know that many of you have even joined book discussion clubs to talk about the book, which is great. I also hope that many of you were able to attend our parish mission with Bishop Remi De Roo.

I also want to draw your attention to another event and invite you to come to a series that I will be offering in March that offers reflections on Holy Men and Women of the past who inspire us today. This series is meant to help you increase your faith in God by showing that God has taken ordinary men and women like us in the past and did wonderful things with them once they encountered Him.

These sessions are being offered for the women of the parish on Wednesday mornings from 9:30 – 10:30 AM March 6, 20, 27 and we will take a closer look at the women at the well the first session, the women of Jerusalem at the second session, and some modern day saints at the third session. There will not be childcare available for these sessions, but you are welcome to bring your children with to the sessions.

These sessions are being offered for the men of the parish on Tuesday mornings from 6:00 – 7:00 AM March 5, 19, 26 and we will take a closer look at Nicodemus at the first session, the Apostles at the second session, and some modern day saints at the third session. Just like in December, there will be plenty of coffee for everyone.

I hope that some of you will be able to attend these sessions, even if you can only make it to one, which is fine. I would ask that if you do come please bring a Bible with you, because we will be looking at some Scripture passages.

What are you doing for the Year of Faith? Maybe you are like me, and don’t necessarily enjoy going back for education. However, in these reflections, we are learning something greater than just basic education of math or science. We are learning more about God, and is there anything greater than God?

God Bless,

Fr. Carlson           

Reviewing our Life

I think that one of the greatest spiritual practices that we can do is to do a daily examination of our conscience. As I mention in the homily just take 3-5 minutes a day in doing it, and you will see great results!!!

Praying for Pope Benedict XVI

Battling against Spiritual Evils

As I was looking at the prayers for Ash Wednesday I was amazed at how beautiful they are. For example take a look at part of the opening prayer:

OPENING PRAYER

Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting
this campaign of Christian service,
so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils,
we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.

In the opening prayer it states that we are going to battle against spiritual evils and that we are called to be armed with weapons of self-restraint. Seriously, how awesome is this prayer. I hope that during this season of Lent that you will take more time for prayer. If you find it difficult to know what to pray with you can always look at the readings for the day, or you can look up the prayers for the day. Here below are the Mass prayers for today, I hope that you can bring them with you to prayer and be better prepared to take up your battle against spiritual evils.

 

OPENING PRAYER

Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting
this campaign of Christian service,
so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils,
we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS

As we solemnly offer
the annual sacrifice for the beginning of Lent,
we entreat you, O Lord,
that, through works of penance and charity,
we may turn away from harmful pleasures
and, cleansed from our sins, may become worthy
to celebrate devoutly the Passion of your Son.
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION

May the Sacrament we have received sustain us, O Lord,
that our Lenten fast may be pleasing to you
and be for us a healing remedy.
Through Christ our Lord.

 

Benefiting the Common Good

National Vocation Awareness Week

This week the USCCB has declared to be National Vocation Awareness Week and they have some great resources on vocations at their website. One of the resources that they have is a prayer to know one's vocation and here it is as well as a link:

Lord, my God and my loving Father, you have made me to know you, to love you, to serve you, and thereby to find and to fulfill my deepest longings. I know that you are in all things, and that every path can lead me to you. 

But of them all, there is one especially by which you want me to come to you. Since I will do what you want of me, I pray you, send your Holy Spirit to me: into my mind, to show me what you want of me; into my heart, to give me the determination to do it, and to do it with all my love, with all my mind, and with all of my strength right to the end. Jesus, I trust in you. Amen

As I have mentioned many times in my homilies and will continue to bring up is that I think that we need to make people more aware of vocations to the religious life, priesthood, and diaconate. If people are not aware of this great life, if they do not think that they possibly could be called to it, then they are not going to consider it as a vocation. So, what should we do about it? Or a better question for you is, why should I do about it? All I am asking is that if you are a parent, a grandparent, an aunt or uncle, a teacher, or whatever for you to make sure that young people are aware that there is still and always will be a need for more vocations to the religious life, priesthood, and diaconate. I firmly believe that in this wold young people want to do something great in their life, and I know that the vocation to marriage is a great thing, but so is a vocation to religious life and holy orders. Please make sure to ask people who you think may be called to this vocation if they have thought about it, or let them know that you think they may be called. I know that this is hard to do, I have a hard time doing it as a priest, but I do it if I think that God is asking me to ask for Him. Think about that for a moment, you are not asking for yourself, but are asking as an instrument of God!!!

I can preach about vocations all the time, but in the end if the young people do not hear about it from their family, friends, and mentors they are not going to think about it as something serious, trust me I know this from personal experience. Make vocations to religious life and holy orders known, make it a culture of vocations, and then we will have more vocations. Please help out in doing this, remember that when one does respond to a vocation to religious life or holy orders they are not doing it for themselves, but are doing it to serve you, the people of God.

Here is a post that I published a couple years ago, and thought that some of you may want to look at it now:

It’s the end of National Vocation Awareness week, and I hope that everyone this week has looked at their own life, and seen where they believe God is calling them. Also, I hope that you have encouraged others to think about their vocation. I know that I started to think about the priesthood when I was in second grade and always had it in the back of my mind. However, if I did not have people encouraging me throughout the years, I’m not sure that I would have had the courage or strength to actually go and check out the seminary. Some of the people that helped out were family members and friends, but there were many other people, that would just ask if I had thought about the priesthood, including someone famous.

When I was in high school, I worked at United Hospital in St. Paul at the reception desk for the medicine care center. I had the habit of asking any priest that I saw what their name was and also what parish they served. One Saturday afternoon someone came up to me wearing clerics asking where a certain patient’s room was. So, once I gave him the information, I asked the man who I assumed was a priest, what his name was and where he served. He responded that he was Archbishop Harry Flynn and that he was the Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. Now, of course I should have known this, seeing as he was the one who confirmed me and I even knew what he looked like, but I just did not expect to see him at the hospital. After being thoroughly embarrassed I told him that it was great to see him and to have a nice day and away he went. However, after he was done visiting the patient he walked by again and asked me what my name was and what parish I was at. I told him my name and that my family belonged to St. Joseph’s in West St. Paul. Archbishop Flynn responded that he was glad to meet me, and then he just asked me, point-blank, if I had thought about the priesthood. I told him that I had, and he said that was good and then assured me of his prayers. Now, this was not the only time someone had asked me about the priesthood, but it sure made me think about it a little more.

So, what’s the main point behind this? If you think that someone is called to the priesthood or to become a sister, don’t be afraid to ask them if they have thought about it. It’s never hard to tell someone that they would make a good mother or a father, but for some reason we have a hard time saying this when it comes to other vocations. Don’t hold back, you never know, it may help that person explore their vocation even more, which we are all called to do. Also, here is a link to the Archdiocesan vocation page, please check it out.

Born again to new life

Road Trip

Time for a new Platform

I was talking to a high school teacher a couple weeks ago and she mentioned that all of her students had started using a program called Prezi instead of PowerPoint, so I started to look into it. I am impressed by it because I can embed it online. So, here is my first presentation with it:



If you are familiar with this program you obviously know how to use it. If not you can either click on the objects, or use the arrows on the bottom of the screen to go from one "slide" to the other. I hope to use this platform in the future mostly for teaching about certain subjects, but first wanted to get the word out again about the book discussion club that we have going on.
By the way here is a link if you want to download a registration form for the Rediscover Catholicism Discussion Club.
Also, please let me know what you think about using Prezi, either by emailing me or writing some things in the comment section.