Excerpt from "The Spirit in My Life" by Blessed James Alberione

This Pentecost 2009 I invite you to reflect on an excerpt from "The Spirit in My Life," by Blessed James Alberione, founder of the Pauline Family. I pray that all baptized Christians receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and spread the Good News of eternal salvation. May Mary, Queen of Apostles, who was present at Pentecost, pray for us.

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

The gifts of the Holy Spirit complete the powers of our soul as they sanctified Christ. “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord” (Is. 11:2-3). Entering our soul through grace, the Holy Spirit penetrates all its faculties and elevates the natural virtues with His supernatural gifts. Thus from the natural virtue of intelligence, we have the gift of understanding; from wisdom, wisdom; from knowledge, knowledge; from prudence, counsel; from justice, piety; from strength, fortitude; from temperance, the holy fear of the Lord.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are habits which perfect us so that we can follow promptly the action of the Holy Spirit. In penetrating the soul, the Holy Spirit bestows on it every good, because “He is a spirit intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, agile, clear, unstained, certain. Not baneful, loving the good, keen, unhampered, beneficent, kindly firm, secure tranquil, all-powerful, all-seeing, and pervading all spirits, though they be intelligent, pure, and very subtle” (Wis. 7:22-23).

Novena to Queen of Apostles Begins

Queen of Apostles Novena found here: http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/prayers/Queennovena.html

Pope on Facebook

Pope on Facebook
Fri May 22, 2009 10:42am EDT
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - You won't get an email saying Pope Benedict added you as a friend and you can't "poke" him or write on his wall, but the Vatican is still keen to use the networking site Facebook to woo young people back to church.
A new Vatican website, www.pope2you.net, has gone live, offering an application called "The pope meets you on Facebook," and another allowing the faithful to see the Pope's speeches and messages on their iPhones or iPods.
The Vatican's World Communications Day this Sunday is devoted to communicating the gospel with new technologies.
"We recognize that a church that does not communicate ceases to be a church," said Monsignor Paul Tighe, secretary of the Vatican's Social Communications department.
"Many young people today are not turning to traditional media like newspapers and magazines any more for information and entertainment.
"They are looking to a different media culture, and this is our effort to ensure that the Church is present in that communications culture."
Users of the new site can select from more than a dozen "virtual postcards" with pictures of the pope and messages from him on faith, love and life specifically aimed at young people, and send them to other users.
The Catholic Church, which has seen vocations to religious life decline and church attendance fall, has already turned to the Internet.
Last January the pope became one of the oldest people to have his own YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/vaticanit.
The pope, known to write most of his speeches by hand, while his aides manage his forays into cyberspace, has even admitted that the Vatican does not use the Internet enough.
The Vatican got egg on its face in January when the pope admitted that, if the Church had surfed the web more, it might have known that a traditionalist bishop whose excommunication was lifted had for years been a Holocaust denier.
The new applications are currently available in Italian, English, Spanish, French and Dutch.

Transfiguration

I will be in New Orleans for the Feast of the Transfiguration. There I will give a presentation on Paul: how we are called to introduce ourselves as Paul did - "Christ Lives in Me!"
Have you even noticed the use of the word "garment" in the Scriptures? Jesus garments were transfigured before his apostles (Mk 9:23). Paul and Barnabas tear their garments when they are proclaimed "gods" in Acts 14: 5-19. After all, they just fled from a potential stoning - hated in one town they were adulated in another. The two angels who stand by as Jesus ascends into heaven are in white garments telling us to "go and live likewise." Paul and Barnabas are eventually stoned and Paul realizes this about dazzling garments and the act of tearing garments. These are signs of the kingdom here and not yet. They are signs of newness. We are called to become children of God! The word 'conversion' in the New Testament is an active verb that translates "ongoing change or transformation." Jesus was transformed before the apostles very eyes! Paul says "Clothe yourselves with Christ!" We pray: Lord, enlighten our eyes to see you. Transform us in You through the Spirit. Fill our earthen vessels with your fullness. As Paul may we finally realize that we become Your true image (Vero-nica) when we place the garment of newness on the face of suffering (2 Cor. 4:8-10) when we share in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus in our daily life. Our baptismal garment.

St Paul Evangelization 101

Check out http://evangelizationplace.blogspot.com/ for more information. See to the right the "blog extensions" to this site.

Twitter used by Bishops for Media Relations

USCCB Media Relations represents the Catholic Bishops of the United States to the media and the media to the bishops. Sign up for new twitter of United States Catholic Conference of Bishops.

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St Paul Seminar concludes

Visit the weblog of Sr Kathryn James http://srkathryn.blogspot.com/ for the day by day report (and photos!). If you want to dialogue about the seminar we can arrange a place on the Internet. Let me know! There are some challenges for us here.

Sr Margaret