Before our move two months ago, I prayed that we could live near our parish so that we could have our Pastor or priests interact with our family and basically be like family. Todd and I have a strong devotion to pray for the priesthood, after all we created 40 Days for Priests, and pray that we are blessed with at least one if not many vocations! When I grow up, I want to be like this mom who had ten children and they all became a priest or a nun and one even a Bishop! Can you imagine that? We pray this prayer for the vocation of my children all of the time.
Here they are with Pope John XXIII:
Ask and you shall receive:
We have had the wonderful opportunity to help a Seminarian friend of ours names Allan learn English. He is from Brazil and needs to learn the language to be able to attend Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary this Fall. We have been working with him for almost four weeks now. Every weekend, Todd picks him up on Saturday mornings and Allan stays at our home all day, eats lunch and dinner with us and then he goes back to the Rectory. Same thing happens on Sundays and on a couple occasions, we got him to come over during the week. It has been a total honor and privilege to help this holy young man learn English and for such an amazing cause! {By the way he blogs over at Vida Sacerdotal if you want to pay him a visit, it is in Portuguese though}
Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary
BUT he is such a handful! He’s funny, knowledgeable in the Faith, and he loves children…to us he is like having a living saint at our home. My children simply adore him! I think God works in mysterious ways…and His plans are so perfect. Allan’s presence in our home has been a total blessing. I think we have been the ones to thank him for the opportunity to help him learn English and for teaching us so much more!
This week Allan leaves to Nebraska and we aren’t sure when it will be the next time we get to see him. I *know* we are all going to cry (bitter sweet tears) when we last see him this coming Thursday morning after Ascension Thursday Mass. You see Allan has become part of our family.
I’d like so share some pictures of our time together with him:
my kids adore him!
this was Allan’s idea…just so you can get a gist of his personality :p
he really enjoyed our walk in the park/woods
St. Francis look alike :p
yes that is a seminarian in a cassock riding a skateboard down my street!
Allan sitting on our front porch
What do you think? Can we find a better way to foster vocations with our children? I don’t think so I like this new “program” of temporarily adopting a seminarian. 🙂
Allan, you will be in our prayers and missed dearly but know that you have five littles ones praying for you constantly! We love you!
Friends, can I beg you for prayers for Allan? Thank you!
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The petition: For the protection of the Holy Priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church and especially all falsely accused priests. Will you join us? {Leave us a comment so we know who is joining us 🙂 }
Novena to Our Lady Undoer of Knots – Day 3
1. Make the sign of the cross.
2. Say the Act of Contrition. Ask pardon for your sins and make a firm promise not to commit them again.
“Oh my God I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee. I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell. But most of all, because I offended Thee, oh my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen”
3. Say the first 3 decades of the Rosary.
4. Make the meditation of the day:
“Meditating Mother, Queen of heaven, in whose hands the treasures of the King are found, turn your merciful eyes upon our Holy Priests today. We entrust into your holy hands this knot in their lives…and all the rancor and resentment it has caused in them. We ask Your forgiveness, God the Father, for our sin. Help us now to forgive all the persons who consciously or unconsciously provoked this knot. Give them, also, the grace to forgive themselves for having provoked this knot. Only in this way can You undo it. Before You, dearest Mother, and in the name of Your Son Jesus, my Savior, who has suffered so many offenses, having been granted forgiveness, we pray they forgive these persons…and themselves, forever. Thank you, Mary, Undoer of Knots for undoing the knot of rancor in their heart and the knot which we now present to you. Amen. Mary, Undoer of Knots, pray for us.
Turn to Mary, you who desire grace.” 5. Say the last 2 decades of the rosary
6. Finish with the Prayer to Our Lady the Undoer of Knots:“Virgin Mary, Mother of fair love, Mother who never refuses to come to the aid of a child in need, Mother whose hands never cease to serve your beloved children because they are moved by the divine love and immense mercy that exists in your heart, cast your compassionate eyes upon your holy priests and see the snarl of knots that exist in their lives. You know very well how desperate they are, their pain and how they are bound by these knots.
Mary, Mother to whom God entrusted the undoing of the knots in the lives of his children, we entrust into your hands the ribbon of their lives. No one, not even the Evil One himself, can take it away from your precious care. In your hands there is no knot that cannot be undone.
Powerful Mother, by your grace and intercessory power with Your Son and Our Liberator, Jesus, take into your hands today this knot…we beg you to undo it for the glory of God, once for all, You are their hope.
O my Lady, you are the only consolation God gives them, the fortification of their feeble strength, the enrichment of their destitution and with Christ the freedom from their chains.
Hear our plea for our Holy Priests whom we love so much because they are Christ on earth. Keep them, guide them, protect them, o safe refuge!
Mary, Undoer of Knots, pray for them!
+JMJ+
The Novena has the Cardinal ecclesiastical approval, receiving the “NIHIL OBSTAT and IMPRIMATUR Imprimatur Paris Archdiocese
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Third Update (July 12th, 2011): Again from Bishop Gracida’s blog, here is a Well Reasoned and balanced appraisal of the Father John Corapi Case. Each point that Mr. Stevens expresses here will help you fully understand this whole situation a little better (I wish the Catholic reporting agencies would have taken a more similar approach, possibly gone to prayer about this before posting their rash judgement about this man). Father Corapi, we love you for all the hard work you did for 20 years of service to our Holy Mother Church! Thank you for all the souls you brought home and for speaking the truth always! God bless you and keep you and may the Blessed Mother protect you during this time of trial. Mr. Stevens ends his post on the good Bishop’s blog the best way: “Let’s just pray for the eternal salvation of everyone involved. Ultimately, that is the only thing that counts.”
UPDATE (June 19th, 2011): Please read Bishop Emeritus Garcida’s reflection on this which has caused so much confusion and sadness (and division). Please continue to pray for all priests. I’m praying that Father Corapi has a change of heart since his SOLT superior is allowing him an opportunity to change his mind. Pray with me.
In addition, since the news has spread like wildfire, I went about reading some really well written posts on this issue, most very charitable asking for prayers (which, I believe is the most important thing we can do), and other just being very sinful in their words. I think this blog post over at The Rosary Trail, states it best as to what we ALL need to do about this situation:
“The worst thing that could possibly happen with this Father Corapi news that everyone is buzzing about is that an occasion of evil could occur in which the Devil will take full advantage of the adverse situation at hand and use it to pull people out of a state of peacefulness and into a state of chaos. After all, he is the master of deceit, lies and trickery and will stop at nothing when it comes to ruining a soul.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with expressing opinions on the Father Corapi news and discussing the reasons he chose to do what he did and say what he said. There isn’t even anything wrong with completely disagreeing with his choice of words, manner or conduct! It’s okay to be disappointed, confused, bewildered, sad, disheartened, abandoned – all of these are normal human emotions and it would be strange not to be feeling something here. But keeping these emotions in check and not allowing oneself to lose control is the secret of how Mary lived her life. She felt pain all of her life from the prophecy of Simeon to the burial of Jesus. She, too, experienced sadness and disappointment, abandonment and fear and everything adverse all of us have ever felt and more adversity than we will ever feel. But she didn’t fly off the handle in attack mode when adversity struck; what she did do was pray.
Please place your trust in the Lord and don’t allow the Devil to infuse his poisons into the cracks of openings you are giving him by letting this Father Corapi news break you down. Seal the cracks and say the prayers and the Devil won’t have a fleeting chance because you didn’t give it to him.”
Here’s my original post from last Saturday: Let me start with this…..a CATHOLIC FACT: Once a man’s hands are consecrated he is always a priest…because it is a SACRAMENT….priestly faculties can be taken from them or they can choose to leave but the fact of the matter is that he is a priest! In addition, the Sacrament of Holy Orders (like Baptism and Confirmation) leaves an imprint in your SOUL. He can be dispensed of his obligations as a priest (or even forbidden to act as a priest); but he remains a priest forever.
If you haven’t read or heard Father John Corapi’s statement {see the youtube video below}, please do and then come back so we can chat about this.
“Fr. John Corapi’s much anticipated announcement, proclaiming the introduction of “The Black SheepDog.” Within this announcement is an update regarding the most-recent accusations, his response, his mission, as well as his gratitude for all who have supported his priesthood. For more information please visit his blog-site: www.TheBlackSheepDog.us ! As always, God Love You, and God Bless You!”
Friends, I’ve read people compare this to what happened to Padre Pio but also use it to accuse Father Corapi of not being humble and of being disobedient. I humbly must disagree. I think that he is acting in obedience. Obedience takes many forms, and in an age of disobedient bishops, failing their Apostolic mandate, it is unjust to brand obedience to the Truth, to the Church, to the Faith, as disobedience.
As his new motto says: Truth. Hope. Unleashed.
Father Corapi is left in an untenable situation. My beloved calls it being “black-holed.” He will be left on indefinite suspension with little or no hope to be exonerated. Todd has known two priests who were black-holed where he used to live in Syracuse, and we knew (all too briefly) Father Andrew Dowgeirt in Miami, and went to confession with him. He made the mistake of detailing improprieties of his pastor, and then the pastor after that, and instead of him being treated with respect for detailing misdeeds, he was black-holed by the Archbishop at the time. Now we see Father Corapi made to forsake his active priesthood so that he can continue to preach.
He has said he will speak more broadly than just the Church. Good!
As my Beloved worded it best:
“I think that the age of the laity is now taking hold in earnest. We will not be silenced. We will not be silent. Shepherds can ignore us, can try to silence us, can neglect us, but we can no longer be silent. God gave Himself for our salvation. He gave us one Church. He gave us one faith, one fold, one shepherd. And the Modernists and Liberals and crypto-Protestants that would seek to take our Faith, our Sacraments, our holy priests, and our parishes from us will no longer be allowed to do it. Error will be fought, it will be cut down, and it will be cast out. You can remove the collar from the priest, but you cannot remove the Sacrament from his soul. Ad multos annos, Father Corapi. Ad multos annos.”
I also invite you to read Father Z’s blog post on this situation, he invites us to be charitable and to pray:
and last, but not least, I invite you to join me in prayer for our Bishops!
Here are way to keep in touch with him:
(Father) John Corapi’s blog, and his new moniker, is The Black Sheepdog.
No matter how you feel about {Father} Corapi’s decision, you must agree with me that this is one sad day in our beautiful Church! My heart aches…but at the same time it makes me want to run out and receive the Sacraments more often and to drop on my knees and pray even harder!
Blessings,
– Erika (and Todd)
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BUT he is such a handful! He’s funny, knowledgeable in the Faith, and he loves children…to us he is like having a living saint at our home. My children simply adore him! I think God works in mysterious ways…and His plans are so perfect. Allan’s presence in our home has been a total blessing. I think we have been the ones to thank him for the opportunity to help him learn English and for teaching us so much more!
