“Our Lord is hidden in the Blessed Sacrament waiting for us to come and visit him…See how good this is!…If he had appeared before us now in all his glory, we should not have dared to approach him; but he hides himself like one in prison, saying: “You do not see me, but that does not matter; ask me for all you want…”
— St. John Vianney.
“In addition to the Catholic belief that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist (cf Jn 6:53ff), the Church also teaches that Jesus Christ formed a New Covenant with His people through His own passion, death and resurrection. This paschal mystery is celebrated and renewed through the Eucharistic sacrifice: ‘For this is my blood, the blood of the new covenant, to be poured out in behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins’ (Mt. 26:28). In the First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul reaffirms the integral place of the Eucharist in the New Covenant. Paul also gives us added insight into the relationship between the priesthood and the Lord’s Supper, stating: ‘Every time, then, you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes’ (1Cor 11-26). If the Lord’s Supper must be carried out ‘until he comes,’ then obviously there must be a lasting priesthood to carry out the commission given to the apostles at the Last Supper, lest Jesus’ command be ignored and the New Covenant be broken.”
— The Catholic Response, Fr. Peter M.J. Stravinskas
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VATICAN CITY, 12 MAY 2010 (VIS) – Early this morning the Pope left the apostolic nunciature in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon and travelled by helicopter to Fatima, a town of 8,000 inhabitants associated with the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia in 1917. Jacinta and Francisco were beatified by John Paul II in Fatima in 2000.
The shrine was built on the site of the apparitions (an area known as “Cova de Iria”) with an esplanade surrounded by various buildings, At the north end stands the basilica and to its left the “Capelinha”, the Chapel of the Apparitions, which was built in 1919.
Before the image of the Virgin Mary in the Chapel of the Apparitions, Benedict read a prayer in which he recalled how Venerable John Paul II had visited Our Lady of Fatima on three occasions and given thanks for “the ‘unseen hand’ that rescued him from death in the assassination attempt on 13 May 1981″.
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God willing, I might become a deacon by the summer of 2011 and possibly a priest for the diocese of Gaylord by the Advent/Christmas Season of 2011.
Over the past twenty-six years of my life, I have been blessed by the Catholic Church to learn about prayer, charity, and pastoral counseling through the Archdiocese of Chicago. For the past seven years of my seminary training in Chicago, the Holy Spirit has challenged me to deny myself, pickup my cross, and to follow Jesus, who is the WAY, TRUTH, and LIFE. Between educating young families about the importance of Catholic education and offering spiritual support to those who are seeking moral guidance from Jesus and His Church, the Holy Spirit has encouraged me to keep following my heart to the altar of Jesus as a future priest. As I continue to discern the call to priesthood for the diocese of Gaylord, I hope and pray that my lay apostolic ministry at St. Francis Xavier in Petoskey will somehow inspire all ages of faith to grow deeper in holiness to always love and serve the Lord above and beyond our limited capacities.
Sincerely
Joseph T. Ortega
