"I say to myself, I will not mention His name, I will speak in His name no more. But then, it becomes like a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones, I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it." Jeremiah 20:7-10
It was a little over four years when I put my fingers to the keyboard and wrote my first ever Imprisoned in My Bones blog post. And today, this very post that you are reading is post number 1000! Ta-da and woo-hoo!!!! Who would've guessed I had that many thoughts inside my head? (Ahem.) A lot of bloggers might celebrate this type of milestone by holding a give-away of some sort, but I thought, a give-away only benefits one person, the winner. I think that anybody who has been following this blog for any part of these past four years, or has taken the time to read or comment or offer a word of encouragement along the way, deserves some type of gift to show my gratitude.
So I thought that I would celebrate by thanking all of you, my dear readers, with a reward that will hopefully have everlasting benefits-the gift of prayer. I'm sure it's no surprise to you that I am deeply devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. So I have been praying the Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the sanctity, well-being and intentions of all of the Imprisoned in My Bones readers. On this Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus I hope that you can feel the benefit of my prayers for you.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in thee!
And could I ask for a present from you, my friends? Would you please offer a prayer today for all of the special priests who have touched your lives in any way, whether large or small, on this the World Day of Prayer for Priests? Perhaps you'd be willing to pray my favorite prayer for priests by Fr. William Doyle,SJ along with me? I am certain that many a priest will be grateful to you for the kind words of prayer offered on his behalf.
O my God, pour out in abundance Thy spirit of sacrifice
upon Thy priests. It is both their glory and their duty to become
victims, to be burnt up for souls, to live without ordinary joys, to be
often the objects of distrust, injustice, and persecution.
The words they say every day at the altar, “This is my Body, this is
my Blood,” grant them to apply to themselves: “I am no longer myself, I
am Jesus, Jesus crucified. I am, like the bread and wine, a substance
no longer itself, but by consecration another.”
O my God, I burn with desire for the sanctification of Thy priests. I
wish all the priestly hands which touch Thee were hands whose touch is
gentle and pleasing to Thee, that all the mouths uttering such sublime
words at the altar should never descend to speaking trivialities.
Let priests in all their person stay at the level of their lofty
functions, let every man find them simple and great, like the Holy
Eucharist, accessible to all yet above the rest of men. O my God, grant
them to carry with them from the Mass of today, a thirst for the Mass
of tomorrow, and grant them, ladened themselves with gifts, to share
these abundantly with their fellow men. Amen.
The International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima (photo credit: Mary Anne Urlakis)
"Please don't touch her. She'll touch you."
~a sign placed in front of the statue
The International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima was
designed in 1947 to the exact specifications of Sister Lucia, one of the
three Fatima visionaries. Since then, she has traveled the world with
two caretakers, making visits to faithful believers in all nations. Many prayers
have been answered, graces and blessings bestowed, and even a miracle or
two have been attributed to prayers in her presence. She has even been
known to weep.
Roses for Our Lady is blessed to host a visit from the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima at our June 9th Holy Hour for Vocations at 2 PM at St. Francis de Sales Seminary in Milwaukee. Just two weeks prior to the holy hour, we found that our scheduled priest would be unable to attend. I made a pilgrimage to visit the Handmaids of the Precious Blood and to Marytown with my sisters, and there I asked the Blessed Mother to please help me find a good and holy priest who would assist Roses for Our Lady with this holy hour, a priest that she herself would choose. That very night, not one, but two, very holy priests contacted me with their willingness to help. I heard from both Fr. Jim Kubicki, SJ, the National Director of the Apostleship of Prayer, who offered to be a back-up and gave me much peace of mind, and Fr. Enrique Hernadez, a newly ordained priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, who wholeheartedly agreed to participate. How blessed I felt to know that Our Lady was so eager to come to our little holy hour that she stirred the hearts of two holy men who would make sure that she was well cared for! Before she even arrived, she was answering prayer!
I have been in such eager anticipation of this event that I wanted to pay an advanced visit to her at Holy Hill for the Feast of Corpus Christi. As I knelt before her in prayer, I was overcome by her beauty. I thanked her for how lovingly she has watched over my family and asked for her intercession for a friend in need of work. All too soon, it seemed, it was time for me to go. The next day, my friend for whom I had prayed, wrote to tell me that he was offered, and accepted, an even better position than the one he had left behind!
A friend of mine who happens to be an amazing photographer, had taken pictures of the statue at Holy Hill. I chose several pictures of Our Lady to share on the Roses for Our Lady facebook page. When I looked at them all together, I was utterly amazed to see that in one picture her head was bent down and in another she was looking straight ahead! Miraculous!!!
The International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima (photo credit: Mary Anne Urlakis)
The International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima (photo credit: Mary Anne Urlakis)
If you will be in the Milwaukee area on Sunday, June 9th, I invite you to join us in prayer at our Holy Hour for Vocations. I am confident that our seminary and our Archdiocese will be particularly blessed by Our Blessed Mother during this time of prayer. If you aren't able to join us that day, please visit her in another Milwaukee or Chicago location. The schedule can be found here. Be prepared to be showered with graces and blessings, and maybe an answer or two to prayer!
The International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima (photo credit: Mary Anne Urlakis)
The International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima (photo credit: Mary Anne Urlakis)
You read about his ordination in this post; now enjoy these rich pictures of the ordination of Fr. Paul Schneider, OFM Conv. by Stephen Pontus, OFS.
Bishop Callahan lays hands on Deacon Paul ordaining him a priest
Fr. Paul lays prostrate during the Litany of the Saints
Bishop Callahan's ring
Fr. Michael Glastetter OFM Conv, pastor and rector of the Basilica of St. Josaphat, lays hands on Fr. Paul
Fr. Alejandro Lopez OFM Conv, parochial vicar at the Basilica of St. Josaphat, lays hands on Fr. Paul.
Fr.
Robert Joseph Switanowski OFM Conv lays hands on Fr. Paul. Fr. Robert
Joseph was the parochial Vicar at St Josaphat’s when Bishop Callahan was
the rector and pastor at the Basilica
The newly ordained Fr. Paul Schneider OFM Conv imparts his first priestly blessing upon Bishop Callahan.
I'm not one who carefully follows the Hollywood gossip that revolves around the lives of famous actors and actresses, but I understand from the news stories that do capture my attention that the lives of the rich and famous are often filled with self-interest and leave very little room for God. Of course, there are beautiful exceptions, and Mother Delores Hart is one of them.
I had never heard of Delores Hart until Lisa Wheeler from Carmel Communications offered me the opportunity to read and review the book, The Ear of the Heart: An Actress' Journey From Hollywood to Holy Vows, by Mother Delores Hart, O.S.B. and Richard DeNeut, about how a beautiful actress gave up a life of fame and riches, that of a Hollywood and Broadway actress, to completely devote herself to Christ as a cloistered Benedictine nun.
The idea of a woman giving up earthy wealth and fame, letting go of her passion for the one thing in life that she loved and in which she excelled, acting, to completely devote herself to God, tucked away in a cloistered convent, was very intriguing to me, and so I eagerly agreed to read and review The Ear of the Heart.
The book is quite lengthy at over 400 pages and I felt that a lot of the details could have been omitted without losing any of the flavor of this inspiring story. The anecdotes of the many famous people who impacted her life was interesting, but I was most intrigued by the glimpes of how God Himself was making an impact on this young woman. The fact that Delores, while not raised Catholic, attended Catholic Schools and converted at a very young age, and made her own way to weekly Mass without her family, was quite remarkable. I was most captivated by the details of how God was calling Mother Delores' to monastic life at Regina Laudis Monastery, for which she would ultimately eschew the Hollywood lifestyle and the promise of marriage, to give herself entirely over to God in a drastic entry into cloistered life.
As the story moved to Mother Delores' entry into Regina Laudis Monastery, I became more completely engrossed. To get an inside view of monastic life-the work, the liturgy of the hours, the relationships between the sisters, and the power of obedience-was delightfully eye-opening. I was moved by the fact that she cried herself to sleep every night for the first three years, and although others with whom she entered the monastery had left, Mother Delores stayed and worked through the many and varied challenges of monastic life with the help of God.
Some quotes that particularly captivated me were:
"Mother Dorcas Roselund, in describing the pitfalls of monastic life, summed it up another way. A gastroenterologist before she entered Regina Laudis, she is now the community's baker. Life in the monastery is "the new martyrdom," she said. "They used to throw Christians to the lions. Now they make us live together."
"Here were women with courage to follow an invisible love in a coffin of seclusion from the world. They follow with no obvious support to the brink of the unknown, there to set fire to a perpetual lamp of love."
"Our daily schedule is never interrupted. Work has to be done. Animals have to be fed. We have to stay here and pray and believe that we can help by doing so. It requires discipline and clarity about what your mission is and where your body needs to be, where it can do the most good."
I found The Ear of the Heart, An Actress' Journey From Hollywood to Holy Vows to be an intense look into the life of a very human woman striving for holiness by giving up all that she loved and all that she could have achieved in the world, to use her many gifts for the glory of God, and in doing so, found a joy beyond human comprehension. It was an uplifting read!
The Basilica of St. Josephat (for more photos visit this link)
Heaven came down to earth this past weekend, of that I am certain. My friend, Fr. Paul Schneider, OFM Conv. was ordained to the priesthood at the Basilica of St. Josephat by Bishop William Callahan and it was one of the most perfect, magnificent, holy and beautiful experiences I have ever known. There is nothing more beautiful than watching a man lay down his life for the Lord, but to witness an ordination in the grandeur of the Basilica, with a choir of what sounded like angels accompanied by trumpets and strings and drums, praying in the company of the sweetest, most wonderful and most joyful of all nuns-The Handmaids of the Precious Blood, whose purpose is to pray for priests, and watching the new priest, in beautiful Marian vestments shed tears of joy while celebrating his first Mass and presenting his mother with a long-awaited maniturgia (Fr. Paul is a late vocation), all amounted to holy perfection, and I was so blessed to be a humble witness and participant of it all. I smiled until I thought my face would break and cried until I thought my heart would melt-it was all so incredibly wondrous.
Fr. Paul and I met in the noon hour confessional line at the Church of the Gesu in downtown Milwaukee in November of 2011. I had recognized him from my visits to St. Francis de Sales Seminary where he had spent some time studying, and so I introduced myself. He told me that he had less than two years left before ordination to the priesthood and he asked me to pray for him. What he didn't know was that very night I was to be enrolled as a candidate for the Oblates of the Precious Blood and would be committing my life to praying for priests along with the Handmaids of the Precious Blood. I took his request for prayer as a sign from God that what I was about to do was indeed His will for me. The next month, in a Christmas letter from the Handmaids, I discovered Fr. Paul's picture and learned that he, too, was an Oblate of the Precious Blood! Since then, Fr. Paul has been a wonderful friend, helping with events for Roses for Our Lady, an organization with which I am involved, and being a confidant and advisor in some of my personal faith issues as well. Being invited to his ordination was a joy of the greatest magnitude.
Every single part of Fr. Paul's ordination-from the lovely image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the invitation, the order of worship and his holy card, the quiet prayerfulness of the holy hour on the eve of ordination (see Fr. Alejandro Castro's fabulous priestly reflection with personal stories of Fr. Paul's life based on Luke 9 below), having the opportunity to sit next to and pray with the Handmaids of the Precious Blood, who, although they are cloistered, were given special permission to attend his ordination, and the joyful smile and easy approachability of Bishop Callahan, who had formerly been the rector and pastor of the Basilica and who was the bishop who ordained Fr. Paul, to the choir resounding magnificent hymns of praise (a video follows-or visit this link- not of the actual choir but a perfect likeness in sound of the offertory song, Let All the World), to the sweet sight of Fr. Paul bringing flowers to the altar of Our Lady during the Ave Maria-every moment was a treasure I will never forget.
Fr. Paul with my husband and I from my Solemn Resolution of Love as an Oblate of the Precious Blood last October
I praise God for Fr. Paul Schneider, OFM Conv. and I pray that the love and joy that filled his heart on his ordination day and during his beautiful first Mass will remain with him forever as he journeys to his first assignment in Peoria, Illinois, and wherever the Lord may call him to serve in the years to come.
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Enjoy this touching reflection on the priesthood based on Luke 9, graciously shared by Fr. Alejandro Lopez OFM Conv.:
Perhaps
it was the preaching
of a
particularly
inspiring, Cuban priest.
Or a documentary on Mother Teresa or
St. Maximilian Kolbe.
Or a rerun
on EWTN
of
some mutton-chop, side-burned fellow
on
fire for the Lord.
Or a pilgrimage
or two, to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe…
Whatever…the Lord uses the moment to
kick-started your vocation.
Kick
you in the rear.
And suddenly…all
those reasons why you’re “notenough”
don’t seem to amount to a
hill of beans.
And
you think maybe he does want me!
Maybe he
really does want me!
As incredible as that may seem!
And off
you go running…as if in love for the first time!
But then…there’s
a stumble.
A
trip up that comes…perhaps many years later.
When in the
midst of your studies. Or as a deacon.
After years of running well.
When the old,
familiar doubts creep back in
like
a homeless Gila monster.
“I’m not smart enough.”
“I
can’t sing well enough!”
“I’m certainlynot
holy enough.”
“I
tried before and it didn’t work out.”
“I’m
too
old, now.”
And you admit
to Jesus in prayer,
“Dismiss the crowds,
for
it’s a deserted place here.”
What
you’re saying is what you think you know:
“I don’t have enough
for so
many!
I barely have enough for
myself!”
But Jesus
challenges,
“Give
them some food, yourself.”
And
this will be your vocation.
As a
deacon, you already know this.
As a
deacon you’ve already been “preparing meals.”
Not from some
“five ingredient”
crockpot
cookbook!
But in
and through the Holy Spirit.
At work in and through your
life.
Helping
you to break open the Word.
And feed crowds at Mass!
To be
an instrument of peace in your friary.
To open
doors in the dark
and
be a brother to a stranger
whose
mind swims with his own alcohol-fed fears.
Tomorrow,
and for the rest of your life,
Jesus will encourage you to make him
present to others:
“Give
them some food yourself.”
And his command
may haunt you!
If you take your vocation seriously,
I
think it mustscareyou at some
time in your priesthood!
For you
will fear
that
God’s people will go hungry.
Because you failed to find them
some food!
“But five
loaves and two fish are all I have!”
Thankfully,
Jesus understands!
And
he has
a plan!
A
plan that includes poor priests and their poverty!
That takes
into account our pitiful and small humanity
and
makes it part of the Feast!
He
teaches us by example that life isn’t a solo act.
Insisting
that his disciples help.
And in
today’s Gospel, the Lord takes what they bring
and
gives it right back…to them…to us.
Tonight
I’m thinking how he gives us, priests,
the
Food that will nourish.
How
our consecrated lives are part of the meal.
As our
Lord takes us and blesses us.
And
allows even our doubts and fears to break us open.
And then gives our lives away.
All the
while letting us have the places of honor!
Letting us appear to be heroes!
Humbly
letting folk imagine
we walk a
tightrope gloriously without a net.
(The secret is we don’t!)
For each,
alone,
is
neverenough to feed so many!
Yet neither
were we, priests, meant to be the meal!
Not by ourselves.
We’re
served, by the Grace of God,
withhis Body and Blood!
And we must
never
forget that!
Father Paul, you must never
forget that!
Each and every day of your life, as a priest,
the Lord will
remind you
that
you are not the main course!
At this
altar…but also in the nursing home…
Or in
a parishioner’s
home…
Or in your
office…or friary.
Or
in the back of church after Mass.
As the
People of God, the Body of Christ,
lift
you up when you are down,
like
a consecrated Host!
Helping
make your priestly vocation holy!
And when
you are proud,
whenever
you imagine you can feed them by yourself,
the
People of God, the Body of Christ,
will
humble you, too.
Helping
make your priestly vocation holy!
Paul,
tonight we gather with the Lord,
to pray for you.
Not
because we know your musical skills.
Or how old you are.
Or how
much you like “Fiddle Faddle,”
or a
trip to Leon’s every now and then.
We pray
for you because we know you’re human.
And we know you are called
to a
special
role in his Church!
We know that
Christ plans to make of you
something
new and wonderful…and holy.
And we
pray for you because we know
God
answers every prayer.
And will help you…even in your fears.
Way back
in the beginning of Genesis
God beat back the first
fear.
The Lord
told Adam, wounded by sin,
“Who told you that you were naked?”
In
other words, “Enough with ‘not enough!’”
And maybe
that’s what he says to us.
As
we gaze upon him.
And adore him in the Eucharist.
Mysteriously appearing
in
his Glorified, Risen Body and Blood
as
something so lowly as a piece of bread.
Something
that to our senses seems
“not
enough” to satisfy even onelittle child!
By his
Grace…By the power of his Holy Spirit…
By
His Glorified, Risen and Ascended Body and Blood
present
in the Eucharist…
You, and every
other priest called to follow him,
will
be more
than enough!
Tonight
we gaze upon the Sacrament of the Mystery of God’s Love.
In the silence we pray that it will
transform you!
See what
you are…become what you receive!
Allow the Lord to consecrate you in
your priesthood
as his
Body and Blood for the salvation of all the World!
Fr. Luke Strand at Old St. Mary Parish downtown Milwaukee (photo courtesy Arise Milwaukee)
Although the video below is from Christmas, it's so lovely I just have to share it now. St. Anthony of Padua Parish on 9th and Mitchell Street boasts a magnificent choir led by Lee Erickson (also the director of the Milwaukee Symphony Choir) that sings every Sunday at 10 AM. Of the Father's Love Begotten is one of my favorite songs, and the slideshow of the church interior just leaves me sighing with contentment. Everyone should be able to enjoy such beauty when they offer worship to the Lord! To view the video homepage, click here.
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee is blessed to welcome four wonderful men to the priesthood. And my family was deeply blessed to attend not only the ordination Mass, but also three of the four first Masses of Thanksgiving and festive celebrations as well. It was a Magnificent Mass Marathon!
This year the lay faithful were given the opportunity to attend a special holy hour for the ordinandi at gorgeous Old St. Mary's Church on the eve of ordination. The monstrance used for this holy hour was the most magnificent one I had ever seen, studded with jewels and perfectly suited for a resting place for our King of Kings. Quiet violin and guitar music set the mood for the the periods of reflective silence punctuated by decades of the rosary led by several seminarians and our vocation director, Fr. Luke Strand. With our ordinandi well prayed for in advance, the Mass of ordination was even more significant for those who had spent time in prayer the night before.
Every ordination Mass is extraordinarily beautiful and filled with
ancient traditions such as the prostration of the ordinandi while the
choir and congregation chant the Litany of the Saints, and the laying on
of hands of hundreds of priests upon the heads of the newly ordained
priests. It is a wondrous joy to be able to welcome our new priests, Fr. John Paul Mitchell, Fr. Patrick Burns, Fr. Arul Ponnaiyan and Fr. Philip Schumaker, with prayer, applause and loving affection on this memorable occasion.
Fr. John Paul Mitchell, Fr. Patrick Burns, Fr. Arul Ponnaiyan, Fr. Philip Schumaker
Ordinations are such a beautifully emotional time that I always cry tears of joy mixed with sorrow. I have learned that the best strategy is to arrive at the church an hour early to stake out the best seat in the back row where I can freely cry without anyone but my family noticing my tears. I was greatly surprised when I met Fr. Philip's mother at his reception after the ordination and while holding my hands tightly within her own, she lovingly told me that she, too, prefers the back row where she can cry in semi-privacy. We emotional mothers are blessed when we find kindred spirits who understand the true gift that the release of tears truly is.
At Fr. Patrick Burns' Mass of Thanksgiving, his brother, Fr. John Burns gave the homily. He reminded his newly ordained brother that if he lives his life as a priest well, people will offer him gratitude for all of the good that he does, but he'll know that they are really thanking God through him, that he is meant to be simply an instrument of God's grace giving his life completely over to the service of God's people. In effect, the priest will become invisible and all that people will see is God working within him. His words were so powerful that I was choked up the entire time he was speaking.
At the end of the Mass, Fr. Patrick gifted his mother with his maniturgium, the towel that he wiped his hands upon after the Archbishop anointed them with oil. The tradition is that when his mother dies, she will be buried with the towel in her own hands and will present it to Jesus as a way of saying "My son was a priest" and He will then offer her a higher place in heaven. Well what mother wouldn't cry at this beautiful tradition? And what mother wouldn't want her own son to become a priest so that she, too, could say that she had a part in nurturing her son's vocation and receive a special welcome into Paradise by our Lord? I was so very glad that I was hidden away in the back pew where my tears could freely flow while Fr. Patrick offered this beautiful gift to his mother, along with the stole from his first confession as a gift for his father.
Fr. Arul, who is from India, accented the gift of tongues at his Mass of Thankgiving on this Pentecost Sunday, and the Prayer of the Faithful as well as parts of the Consecration were spoken in various languages, including his native Tamil. Although we were in the back row, I couldn't help but notice how Fr. Arul's hands shook as he lifted the host, the Body of our Lord, during the consecration. I can't imagine how fearfully awesome it must be for a priest, at his first Mass, to transform a simple host into the very Body of our Lord within his human hands. And I hope that the feeling of fear and awe remains at every single Mass a priest offers during his entire lifetime. Afterward, the celebration dinner included authentic Indian foods and we were treated to a traditional Indian dance as well. Our global Church is filled with wonders!
My strategy for sitting in the coveted back row didn't work quite right for Fr. Philip's first Mass. We were running late and arrived at the church just as the priests were processing in. We waited for the procession to fully enter the church and then we snuck around the side and found the only available pew which happened to be right in the front row! There would be no hiding my tears this time! Sitting in the front row definitely had its advantages, though, as I was able to notice how emotional Fr. Philip became while elevating the chalice, clearly moved by the fact that simple wine had now become the very Blood of Christ within his hands. Musica Oremus, the choir, featuring solist and Apostleship of Prayer employee, Grace Mazza Urbanski, was exceptional and when they began the Ave Maria, my son Jack, who was sitting next to me, nudged me, knowing that I would be delighted to hear my favorite musical selection so expertly performed. At the end of Mass, during his thank you's, Fr. Philip asked his parents and siblings to stand up, and while he thanked them with a loving embrace it was clear that he was crying tears of joy and wonder. And there was Jack again with a nudge to my side as he noticed the tears falling from my eyes as well, but what he didn't know was that during this touching moment, I was recalling a favorite passage of mine from my very favorite author, Caryll Houselander about a priest's first Mass, and was filled with gratitude for our four new priests who belong to all of us, their new family, the Church. Please do continue to hold all of our newly ordained priests within your prayers as they prepare to begin their lives of ministry.
"A young priest was celebrating his first Mass. In the front of
the church his mother and his young brothers knelt. It was easy to
know them by their likeness to him-a family of dark, golden-skinned
boys, and the mother like them.
When the Mass was ended, and the
new priest came back into the sanctuary for the blessing and the
kissing of the consecrated hands, the family hesitated shyly, almost
paralyzed by wonder and love; and before they could go first (as they
should have done) to the altar rails, the crowd had pushed past them,
strangers had taken their place. The faithful were flocking around
their new shepherd, and his mother and his brothers had become part of
the crowd, waiting their turn until the end.
For one moment the young priest looked over the bowed heads into his mother's eyes, and his face shone.
"My mother and my brethren are they who hear the word of God and do it."
Because
the priesthood had made him the Christ of the people, he belonged to
them; he was their kith and kin, their son and brother, their Christ,
their priest at the altar.
People often seem to think of our Lady
aggrieved, slighted when this happened to her! I think she and her son
looked across the heads of the crowds to one another with just that
understanding and gratitude that shone on the faces of the young priest
and his mother." ~Caryll Houselander
