June

I love summer and the month of June!!! Dagny and I are enjoying sleeping in and working in the afternoons, and staying up late to watch movies. When she gets off work early, we go to the beach. So fun. It's hot and humid and the air is fragrant with the smell of jasmine and I love all the wildlife I get to see on my walks.



Copied from the Catholic Miscellany

If the Easter season brings many first Holy Communions and Confirmations, then the season after Pentecost brings many ordinations. We were so happy to be able to go to Fr. Rhett's ordination Mass on the Feast of the Sacred Heart and despite stormy weather and our late arrival a friend ushered us near the front where there was a nearly empty pew behind the deacons.  The entire liturgy is so beautiful I cannot express it. Especially moving is the Litany of saints when the priest-to-be prostrates himself. Also when the Bishop lays his hands, blessing him, then anoints his hands. This is his prayer: "Be pleased, O Lord, to consecrate and to sanctify these hands through this Anointing and our benediction ... that whatsoever they shall have blessed may be blessed, and whatsoever they shall have consecrated, may be consecrated and sanctified, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ." A priests hands are holy. They now have the power through the Holy Spirit to turn ordinary bread and wine into the Body and Blood of our Lord. I never cease to want to kiss their holy hands. It is so beautiful to see so many priests on the Altar and the blessings they bestow upon the new priest. After Mass, what a round of applause when the seminarians trotted out front!!! We pray for them and all who are discerning and of course for all holy priests. This is my favorite one: 

O Jesus, Eternal Priest, keep Thy priests within the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart, where none may touch them.
Keep unstained their anointed hands,
which daily touch Thy Sacred Body.
Keep unsullied their lips,
daily purpled with Thy Precious Blood.
Keep pure and unworldly their hearts,
sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood.
Let Thy Holy Love surround them from the world's contagion.
Bless their labors with abundant fruit,
and may the souls to whom they minister
be their joy and consolation
here and their everlasting crown hereafter.
Mary, Queen of the Clergy, pray for us: obtain for us numerous and holy priests. Amen.

So thankful for these spiritual fathers and my dear husband, who is molding himself after our heavenly Father. Our children are so blessed to know the very concrete love of a father as well as his tender mercy. God bless all fathers. St. Joseph, pray for us.