Homo Adorans...

My parish here in Santa Barbara has begun 24-hr Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on First Fridays. It's good to see more and more parishes start to offer something like this again. Up until this point, only the Poor Clares downtown had offered First Friday 24-hr adoration. To the north in Santa Maria, one parish has been offering it for a few years now, and another large parish up there opened up their own perpetual adoration chapel.

So What's New?

* For information on how to donate and/or help relief efforts in Southeast Asia as millions of people recover from the tragic natural disaster and cope with the loss of hundreds of thousands of mothers, fathers, children, providers, and caretakers, check out Catholic Relief Services.

* Congratulations to the newly elevated Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and to Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza. Also check out Bill Cork's excellent website dedicated to Young Adult and Campus Ministry.

* Congratulations to the Diocese of Saginaw on the appointment of Bishop Robert Carlson by the Holy Father, formerly of the Diocese of Sioux-Falls.

* Let's turn out those New Year's Resolutions.

A Meditation at Christmas

From Meditations on Christian Doctrine
By Cardinal John Henry Newman

1. God was all-complete, all-blessed in Himself; but it was His will to create a world for His glory. He is Almighty, and might have done all things Himself, but it has been His will to bring about His purposes by the beings He has created. We are all created to His glory - we are created to do His will. I am created to do something or to be something for which no one else is created; I have a place in God's counsels, in God's world, which no one else has; whether I be rich or poor, despised or esteemed by man, God knows me and calls me by my name.

2. God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission - I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow, I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his - if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.

3. Therefore, I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain; he may prolong my life, he may shorten it; He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, may make my spirits sink, and hide the future from me - still He knows what He is about.

O Adonai, O Ruler of Israel, Thou that guidest Joseph like a flock, O Emmanuel, O Sapientia, I give myself to Thee. I trust Thee wholly. Thou art wiser than I - more loving to me than I myself. Deign to fulfill Thy high purposes in me whatever they be - work in and through me. I am born to serve Thee, to be Thine, to be Thy instrument. Let me be Thy blind instrument. I ask not to see - I ask not to know - I ask simply to be used. Amen.