How Daily Mass Benefitted My Day to Day Life

Prayer is at the heart of any relationship with God, but to many people, including myself, maintaining a healthy prayer life is a constant struggle. Our daily schedules become so filled with our careers, family, and other activities that it seems we barely have time to breathe. But this is really when we need prayer the most. As I write this I am reminded of a quote from St. Francis de Sales, “Every one of us needs a half hour of prayer a day, except when we are busy, and then we need an hour.” In other words, as life becomes increasingly more complicated and hectic, that’s when our relationship with God becomes ever more critical.

In my personal experience, attendance at daily mass as helped me greatly in this area. I am fortunate in that there are a few churches near my job that offer daily mass at times that are easy to attend before I have to report to the office. I also realize that not everyone reading this may be in a similar situation and finding a daily mass may be much more difficult. I strongly encourage everyone to give it serious consideration. Start off slowly by attending a daily mass once or twice a week and you can eventually grow from there.  The benefits and graces from faithfully attending a weekday mass even once or twice weekly are powerful.

Absolutely Beautiful - Eucharistic Adoration Flash Mobs

These videos are awesome. It is absolutely beautiful and inspiring to see Eucharistic Adoration in public. This is a powerful witness to Catholics, reminding us that we should put our hope and trust in Christ and not fear the scorn and ridicule of this world. These videos also tell us that we should be proud to be Catholic!

God bless the priests and lay people who organized the Eucharistic Adoration in these videos.

Two Awesome Videos

Here are two videos I came across recently that are targeted to college students. The first is by the Cardinal Newman Society as part of thier campaign called AdorationU.com. It is focused on encouraging young adults in college to spend time in Eucharistic Adoration. It conveys a very powerful message. I was really moved by the scene in the video (at 2:02 in the video) when you hear the narrator speaking as Christ calling out to the students:

"Talk to me. Listen. Pray. I may not take away every burden, but I will carry them with you."

The second video below is from Students for Life of America. It is a rapidly growing pro-life movement among college students in the United States. This powerful video gives hope in two ways. First, we can see that the tide may be finally turning in the war against abortion in this country as more of the young are becoming very pro-life. Secondly it also demonstrates that even in the liberal anti-Christian cultures that are in many colleges and universities, students are still being touched by God and called to build this culture of life.

May God continue to bless the organizations behind both these awesome videos!

You are my God

This is a powerful video accompanied by a beautiful song by Catholic musician Tony Melendez. I came across this video a while ago and feel it is really worth sharing.

Why am I Catholic?

Wow! That is the only way I can describe how I feel about this awesome video.

Catholics Rank Poorly in Religious Knowledge Survey

Some of you may have seen in the news the results of the latest survey from the Pew Forum which tested the religious knowledge of average Americans. Catholics ranked behind Atheists, Jews, Mormons, and Protestants in the number of questions correctly answered. This survey asked 32 questions on the beliefs of many various religions, so it's not surprising that people would have difficulty answering questions about beliefs other than their own. What I found most disturbing was that according to this survey 45% of Catholics did not know that the Eucharist is not symbolic but the real body and blood of Christ. Fr. Steve Grunow from Word on Fire Ministries had some strong comments about this sad fact on his blog:

The recent Pew Forum survey confirms data published years ago that indicated that Catholics understanding of the Eucharist is deplorably inadequate. More than four in ten Catholics (45%) do not know that the Church teaches that presence of Christ in the Eucharist is not merely symbolic. Whatever efforts the Church took years ago to correct this deficiency has proved to be woefully inadequate. The Second Vatican Council declared the Eucharist to be the source and summit of the Christian life. If the Pew survey is to be believed, this declaration has fallen mostly on deaf or indifferent ears.

Based on these results, it's easy to see why so many Catholics either fall away from their faith or become just lukewarm. If 45% percent of Catholics don't know the Church teaching on the Eurcharist, then one can only imagine what else in regards to their faith that they don't know. This is a big reason why so many Catholics support politicians and groups that advocate pro-abortion and anti-family policies. These Catholics don't know their faith well enough to defend Church teaching and are easily convinced to vote otherwise. While I agree with Fr. Grunow that religious education has been "woefully inadequate", I also feel that some of that  responsibility falls on us as lay Catholics. We have to take that initiative and continually strive to learn more about our faith as well as educate our children on it.  Unfortunately, many of us have followed the secular world's example and have chosen to fill our days with our careers, sports, and other material pleasures, leaving no room for religion.